Update

Here is the promised update!

Erin:
is fully outfitted for Summer now with a quick trip to Best and Less. I got some of the prettiest little dresses with shorts to go underneath - all throw in the washing machine, cram in the clothes box then put on and wear - and some t-shirts for $40. She already had a lovely dress for 'good' wear that we got out of a hand-me-down bag (she wore it for a trip to town last week and we got stopped and complemented by 5 different people - gotta love hand-me-downs!). All we need now is some summer PJ's and we are done! She looks pretty as a picture and all of her clothes are very comfortable and practical. She has had a bit of a relapse into car-sickness unfortunately but has learned to throw up very elegantly into a bowl - I think they teach that at the good finishing schools don't they? :P

Billy:
is the toughest little man ever. Last week we went into town and Daddy went to run errands while we hit the streets to do our errands. We had to leave the twin stroller at home so Billy and Erin were on foot. We walked the full length of Launceston CBD with many back tracks. We stopped at the park for a little while and he never stopped, jumping and climbing and running the whole time. As we walked into the last shop I asked Billy if his legs were tired. He looked at me wide eyed and shook his head. I fully believe he had another 5Km in him! He is turning more blond with the sun (summer has started early, I'm not real happy about that!) and often gets his bath before his afternoon nap because of the amount of dirt he picks up after being turned loose in the backyard.

Christopher:
still shows no inclination to walk or even stand unassisted - purely because crawling does the job and if it ain't broke why fix it! I have some brilliant photos of him jumping on the trampoline with Daddy and Billy yesterday. I will post them one day when I have MY computer! He is my delight and each 'spare' moment I get to spend with him I feel like soaking him up like a sponge because I know how quickly this time goes. He communicates very effectively with his own version of sign language (ask him if he wants more food and see his reaction, it's hilarious!) and various semi-words (Dadad, Mummmmummm etc.). He is the youngest of all of the kids to go "bbbbrrrmmm" with a toy car and has an obsession with wheels - a chip of Daddy's block??

The new baby:
is growing well and is very active. So long as I walk regularly and stay fairly active I feel pretty good, but I am reaching that stage where I need to wake up in order to roll over. I do think that if another person asks if I'm having twins I shall have to start breaking out some witty come backs. I know I'm huge, it isn't really polite to point it out! I have started planning cooking for the freezer so I can relax a bit in the later stages of pregnancy and after bubby is born. I am also throwing myself into some household organisation to try and get a handle on that. I want to be able to sit and soak up those newborn squeaks and breathe in that lovely smell.

The home:
has now got a SHOWER BASE! We are mere weeks from actually being able to have a SHOWER! No more hauling my beached-whale-esque figure in and out of the steep sided claw foot bath, being able to wash my hair PROPERLY and not having to spend forever running a bath before actually getting around to bathing. I have got some new lidded boxes for the clothes store and I am consolidating the outgrown clothes a bit. I am then going to tackle organising Beloved and my bedroom. I'd rather it be a haven than the dump it currently is. Summer weather means clothes rarely get a second wear (how to entertain three kids under 4.5: give them a bucket each of water and tell them to wash their bikes, the house, their wheelbarrow and wagon etc. - keeps them happy for hours!! Note: strict rules on water theft and exactly how many times you will refill the bucket need to be set out BEFORE you walk away) But the fact that I need to scrape a layer of mud off them is balanced by the fact that they are only wearing a dress and shorts or shorts and a t-shirt. Therefore, laundry is still mostly under control.

The garden:
has sort of ground to a halt until Jon can find time to cut down a few unwanted shrubs and get me a few trailer loads of mulch and organic matter. The soil is fairly impoverished or filled with cooch grass so it needs a fair bit of work. I am itching to do more but I don't think me using a chainsaw around the children is a good idea! In fact, without close supervision from someone who has a clue, me using a chain saw is just not a good idea! Unfortunately, the bathroom and front room take precedence.

Exercise:
I am still keeping active but since the bricks have all been dug up my activity levels have reduced somewhat. I am still walking regularly though. I am looking forward to when we can get a dog. I know I will get up and take a dog for a walk in the early hours of the morning, but getting up to do it myself - somehow I never hear the alarm! We only have to finish the bathroom, set up the front room, build the shed, fence the yard securely and save up some $$ THEN we can get a dog. So sometime in the next three years at this stage!!!

Jess

I will update soon!

We have been fairly busy lately and Beloved has been using his lap top a fair bit - lessening MY chances to pilfer it! I am typing this quickly while he is in the bath just to let everyone know I'm still alive! This is a poem (I think by Elizabeth Elliot?) that touched a nerve for me at the moment :)

Do The Next Thing

At an old English parsonage down by the sea,

there came in the twilight a message to me.

Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven

that, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven.

And all through the hours the quiet words ring,

like a low inspiration, ‘Do the next thing.’

Many a questioning, many a fear,

many a doubt hath its quieting here.

Moment by moment, let down from heaven,

time, opportunity, guidance are given.

Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,

trust that with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer,

do it reliantly, casting all care.

Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,

who placed it before thee with earnest command.

Stayed on omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,

leave all resultings, do the next thing.

Looking to Jesus, ever serener,

working or suffering be thy demeanor,

in His dear presence, the rest of His calm,

the light of His countenance, be thy psalm.

Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing

Then, as he beckons, do the next thing.

Update

A quick blog before kitchen cleanup and a candle lit bubble bath. Not an indulgence, the shower still isn't functional and a possum has done something to our bathroom, kitchen and bedroom light so they don't work at the moment. I have also discovered that bubble bath stops the bath getting cold too quickly.

Erin:
still has her entomologist title, spending hours watching slaters and ants. She still has a big EWWW factor where slugs are concerned though. One got on her finger today and she screamed loud enough to wake the neighbours! Her devotion to her dolls, especially her newest 'son' who she named Waylon, is touching. She keeps telling them that maybe they will get a baby brother or sister for Christmas or next year for her birthday - she is hinting for another doll! The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree I guess.

Billy:
spent a large portion of the day "planting" potatoes. He also spent a fair part of the day harassing snails! He does love gardening, but he definately needed a bath before his afternoon nap. We went on a walk up at Alum Cliffs on Sabbath afternoon which he loved. He spent most of the walk holding Daddy's hand (partially to stop him running ahead!) and walked the whole way under his own steam with plenty of energy to jump off rocks when we stopped to read track markers etc. He certainly benefits heaps from having Beloved home more. He wanted to go on another family walk the next day.

Christopher:
spends a fair bit of time being pulled or pushed around the back yard in a wagon or wheel barrow. He thinks this is fantastic! The kids bundle him in and take off, sometimes leaving him up the other end of the yard which doesn't seem to phase him, he just crawls back! For an extreemly stubborn, opinionated, strong willed child, he is also a sunny delight. I thank God for the strong wills my children exhibit. Surely, if they can be so stubborn at home this stands them in good stead for resisting "peer pressure" in the future!

The new baby:
has a beautifully cleaned car seat ready to go into the car, we just have to test it in the new car now. My back is lots better with just the occassional twinge now. I credit a lot of walking and gardening with the 'cure'. I am finding myself slowing down a bit which is frustrating when my to-do list is so long and the weather so beautiful. It was easier to slow down when I was this pregnant mid-winter. Bub, however, shows no sign of slowing down. I am watching my belly move as I type! Erin is desperate for a sister and I keep trying to prepare her for the idea that this baby MAY be a boy.

The home:
has new wall areas in the bathroom now as well as a new floor. We have decided to get new laminex rather than re-use the horrible old stuff. It will save time and will not need replacing when we re-do the rest of the bathroom. We have ALMOST settled on a colour after debating over colour charts and samples. I have found myself neglecting some of the indoor stuff as I get wrapped up outside, but I am on top of the washing (even if it hasn't made it to the cupboards, it is clean and folded) and the house is REASONABLE, just not sparkling.

The garden:
however, is going great guns! I have dug up ALL the bricks out of the front yard and cleaned up the garden bed along the path at the back of the shop. I am planning to fill that with mints and chamomiles for herbal teas. Yum!

Exercise:
has been great lately. I have passed my goals for the week. The walk on Sabbath afternoon did make me realise how unfit I am though, I was puffing like an old steam train by the time I got to the top of the first hill!

Jess

Update

A stolen moment to Blog! I should be heading to bed now, but I just wanted to take a quick moment. The depression I have been struggling with for a while is all but gone. The major reasons for this are Prayer, My lovely Mum coming down and giving me some much needed rest by taking the kids for walks and doing my laundry and Beloved is finally HOME! Rid of other commitments that had been soaking up any 'spare' time he is now at home with us and I finally feel like we are making progress in making this house our home. The other major reason is Garden Therapy. I highly recommend shifting wheelbarrow loads of garbage, rocks etc. to help get the brain chemistry sorted out!

Erin:
has discovered a deep facination with Slaters - other wise known as pill beetles! We have been having lots of mini-science lessons as we find things under various rocks etc. in the yard and slaters have captured her interest. She collects them, puts them in her little wheel barrow and wheels them around the yard. She talks to them and 'feeds' them and calls them her "jumping snail bugs" - snail because of their shape when curled up, no idea where the jumping comes into it.

Billy:
rides his bike with nobody pushing all the way to the post office and back, almost 1.5Km. No mean feat for a 2 year old on a tricycle! His current obsession is counting things - most of the time he makes it up to five without getting too confused. He is in pig heaven at the moment because I have been letting him help me move bricks and chunks of concrete in his little wagon.

Christopher:
has narrowly avoided the nickname "Emperor Chins" because Daddy has suggested it may not be as cute in later life! I started calling him this because of his extra chins and when I tickle them and call him Emperor it makes us both laugh! When the other kids started calling him this also Beloved suggested it may be best to let that one go. Apparently what is adorable at 1 year isn't so much at 30!

The New Baby:
has started kicking back with a vengance when the older kids are too exuberant with their pokes and prods! Especially when Christopher digs in a knee or elbow. I have prepared clothes to be washed (I have enough boys clothes for triplets), set up the basinette and cleaned the carseat ready to go into the car. I've realised I need cotton basinette sheets as I only have Flannelette, all my other babies being cold weather babies! My back gets quite sore if I don't get out and moving (2 rainy days last week made things VERY uncomfortable) and first thing in the morning or last thing at night are not great times for me. I need to get to my osteopath and have it fixed.

The home:
now has a FULL bathroom floor! I am told that a SHOWER by the end of the month is a real possibility! This is a big step up from the gigantic hole that WAS in the bathroom floor. Progress is happening. Blue wrens have darted in where the floor has rotted away near the door twice in the last week. It will almost be a shame to get that fixed. The blue wrens don't panic, they just sit on the kitchen bench waiting for me to open the door to let them out looking a little peeved that I haven't got food for them! Home management for my part is still crawling its way back but has been majorly helped by Mum pitching in for a few days.

The Garden:
is starting to take shape. All the rubbish etc. is out of the back yard and I have started digging the bricks out of the front yard. I limit myself to three barrow loads a day so I don't get caught up and spend all day every day out there (easy to do!) and in deference to all those who get on the "don't over do it, you're pregnant you know" band wagon (interesting these people rarely get worried about me carrying both the boys around or cleaning the kitchen when I am dead on my feet, but the minute I pick up a shovel....). I have set ideas in my head and it would be easy just to throw myself into gardening to the detriment of the rest of my responsibilities. I have sat down and set myself goals and chunked the tasks into bite sized jobs. There are days when I have to force myself to stop because I have finished the allotted jobs for the day but I am always glad I do because if I take time to maintain everything else, it keeps my gardening time guilt free!

Exercise:
is a thousand times easier with the warmer weather. I have hit my goal of 3 barrow loads in the garden 4 times a week and 4 walks this week easily. Of course I am not loosing weight at the moment (really really not!) but I am feeling fitter and my back complains the minute I stop. I am hoping I won't be completely horrified by post-birth pictures of myself like I was when I had Christopher! I have found it much easier to control my diet now I am feeling more on top of things emotionally. When I am depressed, it is very hard not to pop over to the supermarket accross the road for a chocolate hit at every opportunity. I am actually feeling confident enough to commit to not buying 'treats' more than once a week. Yes, I know that is still a lot and far more than I need, but I know me. If I try and go cold turkey my inner rebel takes over and I gorge myself. I am not proud of it, but it's true! Now to stop Beloved from getting me yummy treats in the shopping (OK, it is possible that he got them for him, but I like to think of it as his generosity rather than my theft!)

Jess

Update

Christopher is one, my yard is getting cleared up and I finally feel like we are making progress!

Erin:
conversed with Nanny on the phone tonight (she is in Queensland at the moment) This is a sample of the conversation regarding the gift Nanny left for Christopher's birthday.

Nanny: Did you hear the music that the toy Christopher got makes? It makes music when you push it along doesn't it.

Erin: Well, Mummy doesn't like the music, she finds it VERY IRRITATING so she taped the switch off. I like the music, but Mummy finds it irritating and it gives her a headache so she taped the switch off.

I keep reminding myself that teaching her honesty is a good thing!! She spent a few hours clearing wheelbarrow loads of grass clippings with her little wheelbarrow on Sunday, she is a very hard working girl!

Billy:
is enjoying the yard clean up. He and Erin are both fascinated by snails, slaters and worms. He trundles around with his little wagon clearing up grass clippings, chunks of broken concrete and bricks with me. He still has an edge of surliness but I think now I am feeling a little more on top of things this will change. His biggest need at the moment is Mummy to be on task in the parenting arena.

Christopher:
is one! I am not ready for this! He is also eating like nothing else I have ever seen, he's a machine. We seem to have gone back to sleeping through which makes me happy. Last night I left him to be put to bed by Mum and went down the road with Jon to have dinner just us. I must admit I was a little concerned about how he'd behave but apparently he was very good, as were the older two.

The new baby:
is kicking visibly now! I love watching those little bumps roll around. The belly is huge. People give me funny looks when I tell them I am not due until January and I jump in with the defense that I have very big babies! My sacroiliac joint is playing up a bit, but I have found keeping active helps and I have started sleeping with a pillow between my knees again. I realised that I am approaching third trimester the other day when I noticed myself making involuntary noises as I got up off the floor!

The home:
is clawing itself back to normal thanks to routines and (mostly) a visit from my Mum! When Mum is here she takes over the laundry which is an amazing help. She also takes the kids for walks etc. which gives me a chance to get in and complete tasks from start to finish. A luxury I rarely experience! She also just pitches in. She is a natural tidy person (I didn't get that gene unfortunately!) and when she gets into my kitchen or grabs a broom and sweeps etc. it is simply what she naturally does. Having her here and having Jon home more now that we have finally gotten rid of some other commitments has done wonders for my mental and emotional state so rather than FORCING myself to do every little thing, I actually FEEL like doing things now.

Exercise:
has been adjusted with the seasonal change and the availability of my gardening equipment. I now have an aim of 3 wheel barrow loads of garden stuff removed from the yard and a walk down to the post office and back at least four times a week. If the weather fails, I will use the exercise bike again but so far it has been holding. This regime, together with squatting a lot when I am working in the garden and cleaning has helped my back a lot. Sitting for any length of time or having a sedentary day really gets quite painful. This is Divine intervention I think as I really FEEL like sitting down and sleeping a lot or doing as much as possible from the comfort of my chair! But I know this isn't good for me and I really feel it after just an hour or two of sitting down.

The Garden:
looks amazingly different after a week or so of care. I have filled the trailer with the various bits of rubbish left around by the previous owner. I am now in the process of collecting the bits of broken concrete, rocks and bricks that are scattered around and piling them up for future use as clean fill, pizza oven building materials and garden bed features. Jon has also done a lot of mowing and whipper snipping and Mum and the kids have done a lot of raking. I can't wait until we get a few months of work done!

Jess

The Humble Index Card

This is the most used part of my home school tool box at the moment. Very high tech hey!

But you'd be amazed what they can be used for!

I have several envelopes filled with words Erin knows how to read written on index cards. We compose sentences together after lunch, dishes pushed to the other end of the table. While "The cat sat on the mat" can lose it's narrative pull after the thousandth read, "Erin sat on Mummy" or "Billy will hop on the cat" never gets old for a four year old. I find these cards so much better than shop bought pre-prepared cards because a child will learn words as they MEAN something to them more often than those words they are technically phonetically ready for. For example, Erin has been able to read "Christopher" by sight for months now, but I doubt that word will be in any shop bought beginning phonetics flash card set.

I have a set of picture cards that we drew with simple outline figures. We compose sentences to match them. A sentence like "The fat fish sat on the red mat in a big hat" takes ages for a child with developing fine motor skills to write, but with the cards they can compose in less than a minute! Plus, they always set us off giggling (I am no Picasso!).

We have the parts of the body written on index cards and one of our favourite games is to take them out and stick them all over themselves and each other. It's hilarious! It is easy to forget how much we are learning. We also have the same for furniture and other household items, stuffed animals (cow, dog, tiger etc), and things in the backyard.

I have a set of cards labeled one to ten and Erin sets these out with the appropriate number of pasta pieces, buttons or counters on top of them.

And there are many more plans for the future! I just need to get to Office Works to get myself some more index cards.

One of my favourite future projects is the re-organisation of our scripture memory. I will organise a set of cards into sections for 'daily', 'odd', 'even', one for each day of the week and sections labeled 1-31. Then we will read the scriptures according to the day and the date. For example, on Wednesday the 2nd we will read the scriptures that each child is memorising in the 'daily' section and review the scriptures in 'even', 'Wednesday' and '2', the next day we will do 'daily', 'odd', 'Thursday' and '3' and so on. Review will just be a quick read through or getting one of the kids to say it for me, not a big test, and all up it will probably take 10 - 15 minutes a day at the most. I will rotate the scriptures as they get memorised or I think we need to review them. This is an adaption (OK, shameless copy) of a product I saw on the website Simply Charlotte Mason (please go to the site to assuage my guilt for copying! It is a very good site) and I love the way it constantly reviews and reinforces the scriptures we've memorised.

So the humble index card is a brilliant schooling tool!

Update

Erin:
is crying out for some one on one attention at the moment. She isn't being naughty (often anyway) just very "In Your Face". As in literally only inches away from my face talking at me. You know what this tells me? She hasn't had enough one on one lately. She isn't like this when she gets some quality time on a regular basis. Of all of the children she is the one who most craves attention. Lately I have been hurrying far too much to get stuff done or crawling back into my little shell to take a break for a while. This has put Erin into pursuit mode and she spends far too much time talking at me non-stop or doing things to deliberately get my attention. Solution: I need to slow down a bit, I need to stick with the routines and I need to give her the time she needs and deserves. If she is put to work next to me as my helper, she is ten times easier to be around.

Billy:
still has the odd habit of eating dirt. I am sure he is meant to be grown out of that by now! He was very tired today and asked to go to bed before lunch. I couldn't put him to bed because Christopher was already asleep and going in there would wake him up (NOT a good idea!), so by the time he got to bed this afternoon he was SO ready for it! I think he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. It takes him about a week to recover from one very broken night like we had last week.

Christopher:
is as adorable as usual even with his sleeping quirks! I shouldn't complain, most nights he sleeps through no worries, but he was woken up by some trays being dropped in the kitchen and took about 45 minutes to settle. Not too bad really! He CAN take a couple of hours. Last Friday though he woke up at 3:45am because his "sucking fingers" (index and middle of his left hand) had got caught in the sleeve of his sleeping bag. He then decided to holler at the top of his lungs unless being held or kept company. He was in no pain, he just simply wanted company. You know how I know that? When I gave in at one stage and put him in our bed he started singing and belting us both around the head!! And people wonder why I don't co-sleep! Every time he was picked up or even had someone standing there talking to him he would smile and coo and chat away, the minute he was left all hell would break loose. Even with all our usually very effective techniques - including letting him 'cry it out' - he still kept going until 6am waking everyone else in the household. Then he woke up when Daddy's alarm went off at 6:20 (Daddy had to go into work very early that morning of course!) and it all started again. Oh it is lucky he's cute! Whenever you think you have any single part of this parenting thing down, something will happen to change that!

The New Baby:
had kicked Erin a few times lately which thrills her to bits!! I looked up a picture online of what the baby looks like now for Erin and under the picture it said "Only 16 weeks until the baby is born!" YIKES! That sounds so much less than one hundred and something days!! I had a brief panic about the amount that I have to get done, then made a mental list:

Put bassinet up and put blankets on it (it is in pieces at the foot of our bed)
find and wash baby clothes (not too hard, they're in our room too)
Pack bag for birth centre (I usually do this when I am in labour)
buy infant size disposables, plastic boxes to store clothes being used and maternity pads
buy some infant size nappy covers from www.babysoftlandings.com.au

and that's it really. One shopping trip and an afternoon's work.

What I would LIKE to get done extends into completely finishing stage one of renovations, unpacking ALL the boxes, working out how to arrange my caravan sized kitchen so it is usable, re-arranging the lounge room the way Beloved wants it including the surround sound speakers being mounted appropriately, fixing up the kid's schooling stuff for easy use, re-organising my home management book, doing some MAJOR work in the garden and reaching the half way point on my Avon earnings which I am putting toward (hopefully) starting uni again through distance learning some time in the future (I have these crazy, persistent ideas of a post-graduate something somewhere in my future). Surely that's all do-able! Maybe....

I think I will just start with list one and see where we go from there.

The home:
is starting - STARTING - to get back to normal. The key? Starting routines again. So simple and profound, yet so easy to NOT do!

Jess

Monday Mythbusters: early risers

There seems to be this mistaken belief out there that all parents with young children are up and about at the crack of dawn. This wouldn't bother me at all except for the fact that some people with this assumption feel perfectly fine about dropping in unannounced before 9am, or even 8am! I have even had phone calls before 7am because they figured I'd be up and about "with all those children".

Sleep is a contentious issue for most families with young children and I have met no two families with the same approach. Sleep patterns are adjusted around work, social events, parenting style, teething, illness, bad dreams and personality. In our family the standard is kids in bed by 8pm and we USUALLY don't hear from them again until 7:30-8am. They know they are allowed to play (preferably quietly!) in their room in the morning but they must not leave their room until they are told they are allowed to unless it is for the toilet or to knock on our bedroom door and speak to us. The fact that none of us are morning people means that if we have been out late the night before and have no pressing need to get up, we have been known to sleep in until 9am or even later! Especially if we have had a restless night for some reason.

Even if we are bang on routine, and I have "risen while it is still dark" like the proverbs 31 woman, there are some mornings I simply don't make it out of my PJ's until after 10am. When I was in the habit of getting up between 5 and 6am, I often put off getting dressed immediately so I could slip back into bed and give Beloved a cuddle with his morning coffee. If I have had a crisis like urgent nappy leakage to deal with first up, getting dressed slips down on the list of priorities. Now I am rarely dressed up to the nines, but I do not consider my night attire appropriate for receiving visitors! Of course I am not going to turn anyone away because I am not dressed appropriately, but I would prefer non-urgent visits were put off until a decent hour! I had a neighbour who had a habit of sending her young teenage sons around with messages or questions before 9am (sometimes even before 8am) which was EXTREMELY embarrassing for the poor lads and myself. I would have preferred she pop over herself or call, but never got up the guts to mention it to her. The thing is a part of me feels I SHOULD be up and dressed and have the housework done by 4am, however irrational that is.

Even families who DO get up and going early are often very busy during the fringe hours of morning and evening, preparing for the transition between day and night. If you do not know a family's routine, in my opinion, the polite thing to do is leave phone calls until after 8am and unannounced visits until after 9am (10am if you are visiting me!). Be sensitive to the fact that mornings are a very busy time in most households. I often have a phone tucked under my ear while I do morning chores and chat to my Mum or a friend but not everyone is as adaptable.

The conclusion is all families are different! I am not going to tar and feather anyone who breaks the 'rules' however, like most others, I appreciate people being sensitive to my family's needs.

Don't assume you know, be open to learn what is.

Myth: Busted!

A vision of what I want my home to be

To look upon our home and call it "messy" or "loud" is to say the same of a rainforest's floor or wetland wilderness. To the uneducated observer it looks like chaos much of the time.

Books spill over every flat surface in the living room. The little ones have their fingers plunged deep into dough at the dining table while a jam jar crammed full of wilting blooms oversees their work. The kitchen is a hive of activity, dishwasher humming over the morning's dishes, flour over the kitchen bench, spilling on the floor a bit. The vegetables for the evening meal waiting patiently for attention on the kitchen sink, remnants of garden soil still clinging on after their hasty rinse under the garden tap. Jam bubbles on the stove and the unmistakable autumn smell of harvest floods the house.

Sister is in the laundry re-loading the machines and singing at random intervals, the sound mingling with the jerky piano practise at the other end of the house. In inextricable part of the symphony of our home are the noises from outside; the dog barking at the frisbee flying through the air, the beginnings of a minor property dispute by the trampoline.

And in the midst of this is Mum, moving as a spider spinning her web, or perhaps a lioness leading the hunt. She tweaks and fine tunes the intricacies of this eco-system, Her face wears a grin of delight at another wilted bloom for the table, a frown of concentration over the latest culinary disaster, an enthralled look of wonder at a grasshopper in a jar held by grubby hands, or even the dreaded stormy glance or raised eyebrow at a misdeed or oversight. Sometimes, somehow, she wears all these looks at once. She doesn't run often, she glides.

Every now and then, usually after a series of eyebrow raising deeds, she grows flustered and stomps about, threatening hard labor and bemoaning the lack of "Home Beautiful" opportunities. The children quietly fall into order for a time and give a bit of spit and polish, but it doesn't take long for another jam jar to appear on the table and the contents of the book shelves to again start their slow migration across the house.

As evening approaches, books and games flutter to roost in cupboards and shelves, the vacuum cleaner and broom banish the day's dirt. The hum of activity in the kitchen changes pace almost imperceptibly as the evenings meal takes centre stage. Their duties and play complete, the little ones tumble into the wisps of steam and emerge with damp curls and shiny faces from the bathroom. The jam jar on the table is temporarily replaced by a 'real' vase, with the least wilted blooms being joined by fresh contributions.

Finally, The Return. The dog's welcome is joined by the shrill cry "Dad's home!" The little ones jiggle impatiently at the door and Mum clucks impatiently at the number of things she "didn't get done" today - but you can see in her eyes she doesn't really mind that much and a part of her jiggles at the door, as impatient as the toddler. His progress to the door is slow and deliberate as he returns the dog's greeting, examines the progress of "Project Billycart" and gives advice on a bike repair taking place in the car port. When he finally enters the house, the little ones resemble a sack full of puppies. When they are sated with beard-tickles and cuddles he scoops Mum into a bear hug and gives her a big kiss - he is finally home.

The pace of the kitchen slows as tea is finally dished up, and we join together at the table. The house quiets around the glowing coal of family life that is our dinner table. Each room still evidences the richness of evening pursuits. Dishes rest on the benches and newly filled jam jars cool on the sink. When the children are finally head off to bed, the evening closing into night, a project is still spread out on the table to show Dad, the books have again slowly emerged for bedtime stories and stolen quiet moments, like wallabies feeding at dusk. A coffee cup rests by Dad's chair and a stray toy peeps unnoticed from behind the couch.

Our home would not make the cover of a magazine. Few of the tidy freaks I have met would be able to completely relax. But somehow, I don't think Mum notices as she curls up on the couch next to Dad. And the look on Dad's face as he gives the last goodnight kiss, that look could be described as nothing but content.

Check out this hat

This hat is just awesome! There is an etsy shop with heaps of these (giraffes, bugs, foxes etc) and you can get a version of this one with a neck warmer - in ADULT size! I love it!

Just thought I'd share :)