Day to Day

My Mother's Day..

My Mother's day went a little something like this:

8am wake up with two happy smiling faces, cuddles, handmade card and gift.

Home made pancakes for breakfast, cooked by the littlest in the family. Thank you Bella!

Rainy + cold kinda day = inside sofa snuggling.

Housework and cooking taken care of by the rest of the family.  So good!

Plenty of time to soak up my new book, which is full of amazing recipes I want to try.

Enjoying Tasmanian roast lamb and vegies for lunch. 

Watching these two battle it out in a car racing game, while I sat and crocheted.

Crochet.  Did I mention crochet?  There was a whole lot of granny stripe action going on.

Drinking far too much hot tea, just because everybody kept offering to make it for me.

Listening to the gentle clunkety-clank of the marble run.

Munching on meringues for dessert that Mr Goodsell baked - see why I love Mother's Day?!

More crochet. Yep.

Finishing off the day with a glass of wine.

Going to bed with that happy kind of feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It was a good day.

Boys and Bikes

Our James has started mountain bike training recently for an upcoming six hour enduro race.  The following month he's hoping to ride from Launceston to Hobart on his bike, which is quite a serious distance - 200 kms.  We're unbelievable proud of his determination and motivation over the last few months, and also excited for him to find a sport that he really enjoys.  

Every time he heads out though, I find myself worried for his safety - as any parent would.  His father has had quite a few skateboard, mountain bike and dirt bike accidents over the years and they're never fun.  That feeling of picturing my own child hurt certainly plays on my mind, but at the same time it's a fantastic feeling to know that he's doing something he loves.

Fast forward to Wednesday when we received a phone call that James wouldn't be able to complete a ride, because he was injured.  It felt like my bubble had burst while we drove up in the car to collect him and it seemed like the short 10 minute drive continued on forever!

He is okay though - a night in hospital, followed with theatre by a plastic surgeon to clean and repair a very deep cut under his eye.  The wound looks amazing now and he is in good spirits, just swollen and sore.

With quite a lot of hospital hours to fill in, I decided crochet would be a good distraction.  I think I broke my neck on the hospital chairs and my head was aching from lack of sleep, but I did manage a few popcorn stitch squares throughout the following day.

It's so good to be home now (finally!) and James is lapping up the cards, treats and thoughtful gifts that he has been receiving.  People are so kind when nasty things happen.

I think we'll be having a nice easy weekend at home - movies, relaxing and just pottering around.  James is really cross that he's not allowed back on his back until next week (surgeon rules) but I'm just happily soaking up that time as a free 'non worrying' moment for Mama.

 

Road trip :: Bruny Island

We all piled in our Territory on the weekend and headed over to Bruny Island.  It was nice to do something a little bit on impulse - deciding we were going and jumping in the car an hour later.  Love that!

Here we are on the ferry - well, here's the car on the ferry...

The weather was kind to us and we eventually made it around the entire island, soaking in the scenery as we went.

While we drove, I squeezed in some crochet.  It grew quite a bit more than in the photo below, but sadly I had to unpull most of it when I arrived home because I accidentally joined a different shade of white/cream to it while we were touring.  I know.  Super annoying.

Oh and here's one of the best bits about returning home.....a teenager that's very keen to earn extra money at the moment - hello car cleaning....

How was your weekend?

Weekend happenings

The weekend just gone saw us with some really hot weather - we're talking melting hot - so we spent a lot of time inside with the air conditioner on.  There were three games of Scrabble, lots of Lego building, reading, quiet times, DVD watching, cooking and of course we did spend some time outside in the heat wave.  There was also sofa snuggling as James ended up with a shocking cold and sore throat, but he seems to be on the mend now.

{Blow up pools are so much fun, even for big people}

I also received these delightful Belle and Boo tins in the mail yesterday - perfect for Easter and they have the sweetest embossed tops.  I thought they'd be really nice to pop mini eggs inside for Easter gifts this year.

Speaking of things in the mail - tomorrow I'll be back to share some other goodies that have landed in my letter box over the last week or so.

See you then,

Friday evening

It's Friday evening here.  

Doctor Who will be on television any second, we're about to play a family game of 'upwords' and after that I'm going to sit my bottom on the sofa and work on my first handmade gift for the year, of the crochet variety.  There may or may not be chocolate involved.

What about you? What are up to this evening?  Or morning....depending on where you are in the world.

Wood fired pizza + cake

My Mum turned 78 yesterday! 

We celebrated with wood fired pizza and birthday cake for dinner, which were both super yummy.

I hope you enjoyed your day Mum, love you!

Our Bella

At ten:

• funny
• clever
• always making BIG plans
• cheeky
• creative - always creating
• lively
• sometimes quiet
• usually bubbly
• an ideas girl
• eclectic and individual
• growing up
• caring
• beautiful
• a good friend
• active
• dreamer

Solataire

School holidays have come to an end down here and Rich had to return to work today, so I was back to going solo.  After having the family joined to my hip permanently while we were away, I must say that I missed them today.  I missed the noise, the giggles, the road tripping and the general chitter chatter that we always have going on.  Today I felt a little bit lonely for my babes to be back home with their Mama - building our mammoth Lego set, making cups of tea and generally just hanging out together. 

I visited Mum, restocked the pantry, washed, baked muffins, read my new issue of Real Living magazine, chatted with Rich on the phone and even had a few games of solataire.  Even solataire didn't seem the same without the likes of the family cheering me on.  Trooper looked depressed when I gave him his favourite doggy treat, so he was feeling it too.

Tomorrow will be a new day, I'm sure. It just takes some time to get back into the swing of things.

iPhone photos

When I'm out and about without my camera, I tend to use my iPhone to take photos.  Often I'll find photos on there that the kids have snapped too, because they know they can have free range with clicking away on my phone - photos that is, not calls or internet!

These are just few of the 100 or so (I know, eek!) that have been taken over the last week:

• Me, 11pm.
• Egg & bacon pie, my girl's request.
• Can you spot a child in the Ford Territory?
• Blythe dolls!
• Creative mess
• James after his weekend bike ride
• Working on my Great Ocean Road trip album
• Trooper & Bella in the hammock

I'll admit that I super love my iPhone.  I never actually get any of the photos developed, but I love looking through them when I load them to my computer.

Are you a phone snapping photo girl like me?

Dirt bike riding

I spent a lot of today working on an altered book (I'll be sharing that on my blog a little later in the week) but this afternoon I was flicking through my iPhone photos (bored moment) when I discovered these two little treasures:

They were taken on a dirt bike trip last year - James' final ride before he decided to sell his dirt bike. It's amazing how much your children can grow in 6 months - James is now a smidgen taller than his Dad, he certainly wasn't when this photo was taken.  His hair is shorter and much curlier now and he seems a lot more grown up all of a sudden.

It's pretty hard to work out if there have been changes in Bella when looking at this photo - helmet and all makes it a little difficult.  What caught my eye about this one was that is shows Bella's love of all things girly, but also her sheer determination and drive to try anything she can!

It makes me wish I could keep both of them little forever.