All things bright and beautiful

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Night Time

I love this time of night when all is quiet in the house. The girls are tucked up in bed (well on top because it is so hot!) the dishwasher and washing machine doing their thing, the retic watering the lawns and gardens, the cat sitting at my feet purring because we are home after a night out visiting friends.

It's been another really hot day here, so we hibernated for most of it, only venturing out to pick up a few bits and pieces from the supermarket and then tonight to catch up with friends.

We spent time this morning labelling all the school books and stationery that we purchased earlier in the week.

And now it is time for me to go to bed too. Hope you all had a lovely day!

Friday, January 20, 2012

At home

We got up early one morning recently (5:30am!) and straight out to the garden (after a drink) to get a head start before the heat came. We stopped for breakfast around 7am, and then went back out until it was all finished around 10:30am. It's been pretty warm lately, so we either have to get up early to garden when we have more energy or get out at the end of the day when we are all pretty zapped. The girls love gardening (especially Ella) so I'm really lucky.

We put our first lot of home-made compost on the rose garden. It was just enough. We really need another composter to have a continuous supply making/ready all the time.

We added a misting system to the back patio, it's not quite finished yet, but Phil ran out of time before he had to go away again, so it will have to wait another week. It makes such a difference out there now.

I also got a new temperature/rain gauge for the garden. The girls have excitedly been checking the temperature at intervals, and hopefully we will get that rain we've been promised soon. The garden could do with some extra.

The middle-of-summer garden is still looking okay. If only we got some rain. The kids have been in the blow-up pool a bit, so the water when finished with gets bucketed on the garden. It takes awhile though.

Our lemon tree that we almost lost is still s-l-o-w-l-y recovering. It's getting stronger all the time, so glad I stuck with it.

Finally we woke to a massive storm today. Gosh I love a good storm during the day, not so fussed at night when the power goes out.

It was a great day to head to the library. I didn't get a photo of what the kids are reading as they were in the middle of looking at their books and had then spread out everywhere.

The rain didn't last long but it was good while it did last. The sun came out after lunch and it went from 23 deg to 36 deg in about four hours. We measured the rain in the new gauge and it measured 20mm! Yay!

I'm looking forward to the autumn when it gets a bit cooler and I can get outside a bit more. I love being out there, but my skin does not, neither does my head (the heat gives me headaches) We still have the hottest month to come yet, so will just have to pace myself through to the end.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Happy Birthday Phil

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Jonah & the girls!

We had Jonah last night for a sleep over to give Amie a break, Ruby is on the Gold Coast with her Grandparents having a holiday, so it was a good chance for us to have some one on one with Jonah.

We visited Whiteman Park in the afternoon for a swim and play

Friday, January 13, 2012

Lunch Boxes

After having tried numerous lunch boxes over the years as a parent, I have some of these coming:

It will be great to not use so much plastic around here, we recently changed to stainless steel drink bottles too. Once they are in use, I'll let you know how they go. You can read more about them and order from here

Monday, January 09, 2012

The Good Days

It's been a quietish day, falling gently back into the routine of chores with lots of play as well. I have been moving from room to room, FINALLY finding homes for all the Christmas gifts. All the camping gear has been put away until next time and all the washing is upto date. Yay for abundant sunshine.

Three new board games the girls got for Xmas packed away

We had a leisurely breakfast of pancakes around 10am. I am going to miss late breakfasts when school and dancing go back. We played Just Dance on the Wii for a bit. The girls had their hair crimped with Kates new hair crimper, and we visited our new neighbour for an hour where all the kids played Monopoly.

We needed fruit and veges, as Ella wanted some broccoli and cauliflower with tonights dinner. Seriously, that girl would eat broccoli at every single meal if she could. We also bought lettuce, celery, capsicum, sweet potato, bananas, cherries, grapes, kiwifruit and some licorice snuck its way into the basket too. Oh and gherkins. At Ellas request.

There was a platter of nibblies when we got home, they ate while watching Toy Story 3 (again!!!) I had a wee nana nap. It was lovely.

After a roast dinner, and a walk around the neighbourhood, Kate and I sat outside eating cherries while the sprinklers did the watering. Kate then decided she needed watering too.