Keeping it Real

So, I know I said that I had a great day on Monday, but today I had one of "THOSE" days. Yep, I was looking forward to 6:30pm alright, bedtime for kiddies!

Even though we had a wonderful morning catching up with one of my good friends, talking and the kids playing, the school drop off and pick up run , were horrendous!!

They have quickly become the most dreaded parts of my day. Why oh why does my precious girl have to go to school anyway? Max and Lacey just want to stay, I mean why wouldn't they? They are 2 next month and have most certainly hit a hard age. Strong willed and disobedient when we are walking, crossing the road, everything. And today I had to wake them from their day sleep, and Max is not well. He has an ear infection and the start of Tonsilitis , according to the doctor when we went yesterday. Grumpy kids, a fair walk to the Kindy area and it made for a difficult trip. Thankfully, a lovely parent and good samaritan came to my rescue when Max wanted to be carried ( he is dizzy and sad from being sick) and Lacey decided she wanted to walk in the opposite direction , head for the road and cling to a pole for dear life and not listen. Hmpf, you just can't push a pram and carry 2 toddlers at the same time, unfortunately!! BUT... we made it! Tomorrow is a new day (and a daycare one!) and I keep telling myself that it will get better! It will, and it is! And...... then the terrible 2's set in! Oh dear!

Seeing as though I have just had a whinge, and in the spirit of keeping it real, I want to share something with you. Now... you don't get much realer than this!

Our master bedroom is a mess. Like stuff everywhere!! Over the years it has evolved somewhat. Before kids and even when Stella was a wee baby, it was gorgeous. Had a chaise lounge under the window, no clutter and "STUFF". Now days, it seems to be a dumping ground for anything and everything we need to keep safe from little sticky, grubby hands or things that need a home.

It really is the only room in the house that is semi safe from the rath of Max and Lacey. Well that was until they learnt to open door handles, and now they just know its a no-go zone! Still, we need to do something! Our room is now also my scrapbooking room. Believe it or not, I sit on the floor, lean on a large wooden chopping board and spread everything out. It works, but its not exactly the most comfortable of things to do and I later wonder why my bach aches? Der . And the more I go to scrapbooking, the more the spell is cast on me and the more equipment I have. Where does it all live?

In the Master Bedroom of course!

I don't necessarily thing it is a bad thing, because our bedroom is the largest one in our home, and all we do there is sleep, so I feel I should be making the most of the space and using it to its full capacity, but there are some changes that need to be made! Definately!

Here is the proof! Argh, the shame!

And I did NOT touch a thing before I took these, as hard as it was, I am keeping it real!

Boxes full of goodies that need to be sold at a Garage sale, we are planning for next weekend, seriously nowhere else to put it!

                                      The scrapbooking Storage Expedit unit is overflowing!!

Presents bought for Easter and kids birthdays next month , and they haven't moved since coming home. Lazy Liz!

So.. the plan? A makeover of course!! Not the usual type of makeover, this one is on a budget! A shoestring budget! The start of this year has really kicked our bum on the bank balance front, so I don't have alot of money to play with. No stress, thats half the fun of the challenge!!

Now I need ;

Somewhere to sit and scrapbook, and maybe be able to leave a project half done ,

 and be able to return to it.

A more streamlined and classy look, not so much "Stuff' everywhere

Better storage

And an overall new, improved and stunning room, thats useful too!

27

Last week, the 14th, I celebrated my 27th Birthday. Don't you hate it , now that we are older, that it doesn't even feel like your birthday? Well thats the way I feel. But I had a lovely day, filled with friends and family and I got majorly spoilt!

The day before I had a lovely morning tea at my girlfriends, as her birthday is 2 days before mine, and the kids had a play. Then on the day, my parents did their usual early morning visit with gifts, just like when we were kids, and I headed to Northampton ( about 40 mins away) to visit a friend and spend the day before school pick up.

No birthday is complete without the mandatory family dinner and over catered feast!

The food was yummy as usual and company even better!

All in all ,  I had a lovely day, got wayyyyy too spoilt and certainly had some yummy Lemon Meringe pie to work off at bootcamp the next morning! ha

Productive Day

Yesterday I had one of those days. No, not one of 'THOSE" days were you are pulling your hair out, have a course voice from yelling and can't wait until bedtime, but a day where I achieved alot!  

For those who follow my Facebook page, you would have seen my 'To Do' list abd everything marked off and completed! Yip -eeeee! It helped that I only had Angus at home, the other 3 kiddos went for a play at their Grandparents and I made the most of my time. I could have and probably should have relaxed, done some scrapbooking, read a magazine , had a coffee, but instead I worked like a trojan, skipped all meals but felt better going to bed than I have in a long time. Absolutely exhausted but accomplished!

 For me, having always worked, and only becoming a Stay at Home Mum 12 months ago, I have found that to be the hardest to deal with. I am used to going to work, doing wages, ordering products, training staff and all while caring for my kids, cooking , cleaning and trying to give my kids a beautiful life.

Its been hard for me, feeling like I haven't achieved much. In reality, I have achieved alot. Our kids are fed, happy, safe and entertained. We often do craft and I like to keep my house tidy and relatively clean. Isn't that enough? Of course! But often I want to feel like I have done more. I NEED to see changes, see those ticks on a list. Or I feel somewhat like a failure. Silly I know, but surely someone can relate? This SAHM gig is tough!

Anyhoo, yesterday,  I started the day like this;

I got out all the spare baskets and organising tools that I had around the house, just incase I needed them and just to see what I had to work with. I always do this, it gives you a better plan for what is going to where and how. I actually had a chuckle to myself when Clare from The HOME She Made posted on her FB Page that she does the same thing, great minds, but it really is the most practical thing to do.

One of the jobs on my list was to do something about our beloved Flash Cards. They are fantastic for a learning and interactive play tool for the kids, but lately the only thing they have been learning, is watching Mum play 52 pick up with the darn cards. ARGH! Not only that, but the boxes were starting to look rather worse for wear and the cards were all getting mixed up.

 

The boxes started to look like this.

I had a spare set of little plastic tubs from Ikea, available in a set of 3 for $4.95 and HERE, they really are so handy and CHEAP!
I saw on Pinterest that someone used them for card games like Uno and playing cards and instantly thought of our flash cards.
Now they are all organised nicely, labelled and whats better is, the tubs are easy for the kids to open and close themselves, no more 52 pick up for Mum! I'm not silly!

Then I moved on to finish organising Stella's wardrobe. Remember when I made the wardrobe dividers for her School clothes in this post?

Well ever since then, I have wanted to finish sorting and organising all her knick knacks that seem to scatter everywhere or get knabbed by her little brother and sister.

Even though we have a toy room, we have decided to allow the kids to keep their special toys in their own rooms. For a few different reasons, to teach  them that some toys are for sharing but some toys belong to certain people, to teach them to care and look after things and that some toys are more precious than others and need to be treated accordingly, just to name a few. So for Stella, her 'precious' toys are obviously her Blythe dolls, but they are up high in her wardrobe, but her Strawberry Shortcake dolls and accessories and a few Littlest Pet Shop ones. All of these are also small and fiddly bits and are easily misplaced.

So I moved a small white bookshelf that used to live in my sewing room (now the twins bedroom to make way for dear Angus) that has been stored in the garage and sorted all her goodies and placed them in different baskets and containers (bottom right side) .

It looks MUCH better and Stella is really happy with the result and instantly started playing with everything, simply because she knew where it was, what was in what box and where to put it back!

FYI- The bottom baskets are General shoes (left) and dress ups (right) then the pink tin is for the bulkier items like a Barbie horse etc, her keyboard is standing behind and then the shelves with her baskets . School shoes are in the shoe hanger, school clothes to the left and then normal clothes in a few sizes to the right.

I also managed to mark other jobs off the list, like filling and organising my new and mega gorgeous camera bag I got for my birthday last week (post coming tomorrow) , Sort and fill our new School folder from Kikki K ( sorry tried to find it on the website and it seems to have gone, hopefully just out of stock!), clean the inside of the washing machine, download and print the Laundry labels from  'A little delightful' and most importantly , begin our Master bedroom makeover (it definately needs it and I am going to be keeping you informed along the way).

Totally knackered by the time I was finished but love seeing the results!

Easter Decor

Finally sharing our Easter decorating in our home.

All items Bed Bath and Table (bar the egg we made last week with buttons) but over the past few years so may not be all available now.

Even some pretties in the Toy Room!

Hanging eggs from Spotlight, tree we have had for years in the kids rooms, and the bunny is from Ollie Rose

The pretty Eggs we decorated at Playgroup and home, hanging in the toy room.

On top of our bookcases in the main living area. Chook from BB&T, filled with plastic eggs from Spotlight and the yellow wreath and little pegs on chook are from a pack available at Target for $5 , I bought them last year but they are there again.

Simple tray of goodies on our dining table. Tray from Ikea, Glass jar from Target (was filled with Christmas candies) , now filled with plastic eggs from Spotlight. Small jar with foam eggs bought from Local party shop and a soft chook toy (given to kids at Christmas).

A few eggs a simple addition to our existing decor , these are also included in the pack from Target, its seriously a bargain! And yellow fluffy chook made from a plastic cup at Playgroup, CUTE!

                                                               Our sideboard display.

Our Easter books are displayed in a tin from Target (can you tell its the only department store we have here?)

And its finished with another jar filled with plastic eggs (cheap , easy and effective!) a birdhouse from BB&T(last year) and a cute bunny (also BB &T)

The next shelf has an Egg display spelling 'EASTER' , purchased from Thingz last a few years ago, and are displayed on a tray from Target.

Our Easter books, they are quite hard to come by in our town.

Easter Egg Hunt - is gorgeous, lift the flap, pull flat interactive book  (from Target)

Spots First Easter - Also lift the flap and simple for younger children (From Target)

Hop and Jump- Basic story but textured pages (from Crazy Clarkes)

And the Peter Rabbit Golden Book Set is adorable (From Target a few years ago)

Next on our list is the Anne Walker Easter book, Because I just love her books!

We also have some colouring pages ready to go, I find it easier that way , and I will post some links later on for them.

But one we have already completed, this is Stella's , isn't it gorgeous?! But I have already mounted and decorated it and put it in her art folder.

And last but not least, our chickens hang in pride of place on our Liatorp units in our family room, we made these last year!!

Phew, sorry for the photo overload, however we are getting quite the collection of Easter decos , and I LOVE IT!! However, it is making the weekly dusting chore a tad more difficult!!

Sorry for the delay in posts, I am having a few issues with Blogger, for some reason, my scheduled posts aren't working!

Do you decorate for Easter?

Easter crafting so far...

Its only early days, but we have already completed a few Easter crafting activities, but never fear, there is still a heap on our "To Do List!"

The kids LOVE glueing at the moment, and I prefer it over a painting craft ( I mean, who wouldn't?!) so this is perfect. Another take on our Handmade Hearts, but only Easter Eggs.

One is destined for our front Buffet display, and the others for the Toy room I think!

For the past few weeks, I have been in charge of organising the craft activity at Playgroup, and this is what we created on Friday! Simple Paper plates, foot print ears and cute fluffy noses!

And the week before we decorated paper plate Easter Eggs (we painted them the previous week so they had time to dry). Confetti, glitter, gem stickers, fluro spot stickers, alfoil, feathers, you name it , it all went onto the eggs and they turned out so well!  (We used the large , rather hard paper plates , they are about $5 for a pack).

As I said, the list is still full of activities, and really , there is only 2 weeks to do them!

For past Easter Posts click HERE, and HERE ( WOW, check out how much our babies have grown!)

Banana and Berry Muffins

Our family is absolutely loving the fact that bananas are back to an affordable price, as the kids eat them like they are going out of fashion, and they are always a nice addition to baking.

With Stella at Kindy 3 days a week, and the school having a "Healthy lunchbox" attitude, I have been conscious of making healthier treats for the kids and husband to eat. ( I am on a weightloss mission so they aren't really for me, but if I do sneak one, at least I know they aren't all bad!).

Last week I baked up a storm, and made 3 batches, of different variations of these muffins, using a recipe from Jade at the Super Organiser Mum blog, but with my own twist.

Banana and Berry Muffins

3/4 cup Wholemeal SR Flour

3/4 cup SR Flour

1/3 cup Caster Sugar

60g Butter

2/3 cup Mashed Banana (approx 1 large banana)

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup of Berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)

In a large bowl rub together flour, sugar and butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs (I simply put it in a bowl and stir it with a wooden spoon until its well combined , I am not one for steps in a recipe! haha)

Stir in rest of ingredietns to combine.

Spoon mixture into muffins pans and bake at 190 degrees for 20 mins

Now the variations on the recipe that I used were;

A tube of the berry pulp (pictured below) , and added 1/2 cup of LSA (Linseed, Sunflower and Almond mix ground up and purchased from a Health food store) for these ones.

Fresh Blueberries, and a packet of the Rafferty's Apple, Pear and Cinnamon mix and the banana for these.

And for these, I had a tin of mixed berries that I had used a few days earlier for a loaf and had left overs, I simply mixed those in with the bananas, and again, 1/2 a cup of LSA mix.

These ingredients, may not be fresh but they are still a lot healthier than choc chips or icing! And when baking, especially numerous batches, I like to keep things pretty simple.

They were all a BIG hit amongst the kids. They absolutely loved them, nd infact, Master Max had quiet a few tantrums over wanting more cakes!

Gotta love that!! hmmmm

Lately...

Time flies when you are having fun, or super busy, either way, I feel like I am just treading water at the moment! Life has been full on lately (like it is any other way for us anyway!) with DH playing in Country Week Waterpolo (they won and he took out a swag of awards and completed the weekend with a TV interview, yes sir-eeee!) and now the kids and I have caught the dreaded summer cold! I feel like death warmed up, and could honestly sleep away a whole day if I could  ( its probably what I need to get better seeing as though I can not take anything while I am feeding Angus). Throw in the start of Bootcamp (I am on a mission to shed some serious KGEE's this year) , school and general life 'Stuff' , our world is all about Bizzzzzyyy!

But , just so you don't feel left out, the happenings lately;

Angus the little darling has started to sleep in a grobag, and has outgrown his Snuggle bed and cradle (sob sob) , he also thinks that 20 mins is long enough for a nap, and I have news for him!

Our baby is growing up too quick , and now sits so well in his Bumbo and has even started on Rice Cereal this week and LOVING it!! He has been quickest of our bubbas to take to solids , and had the mouth control from the very beginning!

Our darling children discovered a tub, filled with water from the previous nights retic, and were like bees to a honey pot, and boy did they have fun!!

Our dare devil daughter can now climb onto the fort, using no other way than UP the slide and now thinks its pretty cool to hang off the thing and frighten the poop out of us!!

Angus is adorable and a true 4th child! He LOVES the sound of the vacuum cleaner and falls asleep every single time. Don't worry, the thought of leaving it running for a while after finishing the vacumming has crossed my mind on more than a few occasions!

We took a drive out to my Sister and Brother in Laws house, on a farm , about 100km from town for my neices 3rd birthday!

                                     Alot of cousin love was shared, so beautiful to witness!

And we all went for a walk around their gorgeous gardens and orchard , picking fruit and tasting the produce! Yummo

                My clever sister, awesome at crafts, amazing chef and even a great gardener!

Darling Max, proud of his 'ball'

The birthday girl eating a fig! We all enjoyed a delicious dinner of homemade pizzas, and had a few laughs. Every birthday feels like a big party in our family, with 8 kids between 2 sisters, there is never a dull moment!

There has been plenty more, but this post is filled with enough photos, but in all the craziness, life has been fun. Testing but fun!