Hester's garden pre-puppy

Me again. I was just browsing through photos of E's birthday in 2007 and found this one of her discovering a fairy in our front garden. I had forgotten that I had so many flowers before we acquired a puppy who a) dug in the flower beds and b) sucked up my last remaining spare energy. This blog was sort of supposed to be about what was happening in my garden but there ain't much happening in it lately. So here's a peek at how it looked ages ago before I started blogging.

At the moment, the pumpkin vine has completely taken over the vege patch and I am not allowed to pull the untidy thing out. So our energies are going towards pulling out the weeds at the back of the yard, putting down layers of newspapers to hold the weeds at bay until we get a spare moment and then transplanting squares of lawn from elsewhere in the yard. I then have to water the new patches of grass on our allocated watering days and pull out all the new weeds until the grass grows enough to look sort of like more lawn. A very slow process but we are getting there.

I was going to go to bed early, but my husband has taken himself off to see that Clint Eastwood movie (can't think what it is called) at 9.30pm. Very unusual for him to do something for himself. He got promoted a few weeks ago so I think he felt he earned a reward. G has already woken up twice and gone back to sleep and I am enjoying having the house (and the computer) to myself. Having made apricot and black cherry crumble again for dessert, I figure I deserve to leave the pots and pans for someone else to do. Probably me, in the morning! Goodnight!!!

Off to the photographers

Dear faithful readers (all 5 of you),

Finally, I find a spare 10 minutes to do some blogging. Small daughter crashed at 6.30pm in my arms being breastfed on the couch while I actually watched the wonderful British archaeology programme "Time Team". It makes we Brisbane heritage people weep as they are so spoilt with heritage over there. I also love getting my fix of English countryside. Every little path seems to be so picturesque. Even the weeds are beautiful! Anyway...one of the benefits of giving up the daytime sleep is a very very tired toddler by 6pm. She would not normally fall asleep in the lounge room while her mother watched TV. If only the 6 year old would go to sleep at a reasonable hour, life would be so much easier. When Scott came home from work tonight to find only one child awake, I said "Is this what it is like in normal households where people are stricter and children go to bed at a proper time?".

Anyway..on to the planned topic for this post. How easy it is to ramble when blogging. The above photos were taken on Saturday as we left the house for a proper photo to be taken for "Grandma's " birthday. Needless to say, this required wearing proper dresses and having hair very tidy. It also involved bribing the youngest girl into wearing a proper dress by promising a "frocky frog". My sister was meeting us with the other three grandchildren at "Brookie", the shopping centre of our childhood, at the fairly revolting photographic studio which gives you a $21 sitting and a free photo while doing their best to talk you into spending hundreds of dollars. This took weeks to arrange as my sister and I both work and my children have been infectious with various disgusting ailments for a few weeks. Finally we get there to be greeted by my sister who says "H looks really sick. He can't come. We have to cancel". C'est la vie. But my big girl, who didn't want her photo taken an hour earlier, now dissolves into tears at the thought of the cancelled photo shoot. So we have a photo shoot with just my two girls. It's not too painful and I see a sneak preview on the computer screen. The photos are taken with a plain white background which I thought would make the girls look washed out in their pastel flowery dresses but the photos look fantastic. So fresh and modern - not like the usual dreadful portraits. I can see I won't be able to resist buying several.

So for now, here are the shots we took before we headed out the gate, which of course, had to include Kipper the dog. As you can see, the small girl has entered that phase which seems to last forever of smiling purposefully for every photo and ruining the "naturalness" of the photo. Never mind.

On a completely different topic....I was so proud of my big girl today. She has a little boy in her grade 1 class who is a real sweetie. He has a vision problem so wears very strong glasses and has had a couple of years of special education before joining the mainstream schooling last year. He was bullied in prep by the kids for being "different" and had a miserable time. He is now in E's class and just loves our big girl, who has taken him under her wing a bit. His mum approached me at his request to ask if he could come over for a play. "Of course" we said so phone numbers were exchanged and today he came home with us after school. He is such a wise, funny little guy. When my two ran to the car along the footpath he said " No running on the cement. You'll get skinned knees!". After we had afternoon tea, he brought his cup and plate to me in the kitchen and put them in the sink. I love kids who did that. The kids had a lovely time playing and I was amazed at E enjoying the whole experience so much as she is such a grown up girly girl and not really into boys at all. The little guy's mum told me that E is a credit to us so tonight I am a proud Mum. It's so easy for me to concentrate on her and my failings and good to remember that she is turning out ok.

Sick cherub

I have a sick wee cherub. She has one of those truly vile vomiting viruses which I have just realised she probably picked up at the indoor bouncy castle play place at "Chermie", our local shopping centre. Playing and eating hot chippies on Saturday - vomiting and miserable Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. And Sunday morning, she was happy as a lark doing tricks with her Daddy in the early morning sunshine in her pajamas.

Monday morning at 9.30am, the girl who only goes to sleep being cuddled or breastfed, lay on her bed with her beloved "baby" and crashed. She slept for two hours and did the same thing this morning - slept from 8am to 10.30am. She is now keeping down crackers and Powerade and hopefully has turned the corner. Yes...Le...this family sho' is run down!

On the upside, I have spent three days doing little else but being with my girl and trying to make her feel better, while still trying to give the big girl enough attention. Thank goodness for Dora computer games on the internet ! I always think when they are sick and I drop everything to hold them for hours that I should do this when they are well. Forget the housework, the shopping, blogging, the phonecalls and just BE with them. I'm always so busy and selfish, trying to make life better organised and more enjoyable. I lay on the floor yesterday and read the wee girl books for ages - something I would not normally do on a Monday morning but it was lovely.

Anyway.... time to go and collect the big girl from school who, luckily, has so far escaped the bastard virus.

Note to self - buy antiseptic wipes to take to indoor bouncy castle at shopping centre.

Reasons to be cheerful - Part 1

1. The puppy slept in until 5.45am this morning and my husband got up to let him outside.
2. It was raining and I had a lovely cup of hot, milky, sweet tea and watched a few minutes of grown up morning television before the big girl woke up and required ABC kids.
3. I stayed at school with the big girl to do literacy groups and she was in my group doing the braille activity.
4. The little girl and I shared a Dreamy Donut with Lindt chocolate on top.
5. I had yummy left over lamb korma cooked by Scott for my lunch.
6 After lunch, the little girl and I snuggled up under the doona for a naptime feed and she felt so warm and gorgeous with the soles of her little feet against me.
7. The puppy seems quite happy to curl up in his new second hand dog box out of the rain and sleep all day.
8. I am making easy peasy gluten free dessert for tonight - black cherry and apricot crumble!