Blogging break

Well....I've said it a few times before , but I'm going to take a break from blogging. It's a year and a day since I started my blog on my 43rd birthday for a bit of a fun and an outlet for my chatterbox mind. It's been such a great year being part of a tiny corner of the blogging world. Somehow, some lovely people stumbled onto my blog and stayed around long enough to become friends. It's been just lovely to peek into your lives and welcome you into mine. It's kind of amazing how supportive people can be who have never actually met you. So thanks to everyone for taking the time to drop by Hester's Garden. I'll still drop in on you guys as I'll miss you otherwise and I love reading what you are up to. No doubt, I'll be unable to stop blogging for too long.

However, there are children to play with, doggy hairs to sweep off the floor, a neglected husband to give some wifely attention to, baby quilts to make, a pile of paperwork to attend to, and a few more episodes of Californication to watch. How the rest of you fit it all in, I've no idea. (I"m thinking particularly of you, Beck!)

See you soon, I hope. Take good care of yourselves.

Things making me happy

Just some random stuff that is making me happy. I seem to have lost my momentum with my blog but I guess it's just there for when I'm in the mood....it doesn't have to be something on my "to do" list. Sometimes, I just wait for inspiration to strike. As it did just now when E cried out "Look, Mummy...our first baby nasturtium!!". So....here it is. A simple, small thing I know, but it really makes me happy. All my lovely colourful petunias have gone scraggy and dead looking so after consultation with my green thumbed mother, I have hoiked most of them out. I will start again with some new baby plants. Also, my pansies are not coping with the warmer weather and I don't have time to water them EVERY morning so I might go with something more hardy like geraniums that I can neglect but still get pretty flowers from.

Recently, I have slackened off from my efforts to let the children have less time watching kids' TV/dvds and playing the computer (mostly my big girl, not the little one). But I resumed my guerilla warfare this week. My family doesn't respond well to "rules" and the Daddy is too soft to help me enforce them so I gently said one school morning that we were going to do "other fun stuff" rather than watch TV before school. (E usually gets up at 6am or earlier so is usually allowed to watch TV quietly before having breakfast and getting dressed). I put out scissors, glue, paper and magazines the night before and in the morning, told the girls we were going to cut out pictures of stuff that we would like in our life and stick them on paper to make a sort of life wish collage. That only occupied them for a little while. (Making the rainbow out of magazine pictures was much more successful. Don't know how to link to that post, though). Anyway....I also bought a packet of little coloured matchsticks and let the girls loose with them. E made pictures and G did a multi media installation!

So it made me happy to see them absorbed in creating rather than interacting with a screen.

Lastly, I don't watch that much "grown up" TV or get many DVDs out because by the time the girls are asleep, I'm just about ready for bed and can't manage to watch an hour or more of something. Scott is a night owl and had tried to get me to watch "Californication" but I thought it looked too sleazy. I gave it another try one night and, again, thought the first episode was a bit gross. All that sex with strange women put me off no end. But...I persisted and soon realised there is a lot more to the show than just the graphic sex scenes. It's funny and has it's deep moments and David Duchovny's character grew insidiously on me until I developed a bit of a crush. Yes...he's an irresponsible sex addict but he "loves the shit out of his daughter" and has a good heart and he makes me laugh. So now we have wizzed through the first season. I can manage a half hour of TV before bed without too many eyedrops and often say "Let's watch another episode!". Yep....I'm a real party girl.

After work this week, I had a rare chance to browse in the city shops as Scott was at home on duty with the girls. I decided to treat us to the next season of Hank and get a new dvd each for the girls. "Milly Molly" for E and a Hi Five dvd G has been wanting forever. It was nice to come home with a present for everyone. The budget doesn't run to presents much but it's good to lash out occasionally. So...if you want to snuggle up with someone and have a good laugh....give Hank a try. (By that I mean snuggle up with someone and watch Hank together. But I could definitely snuggle with Hank!)

First dolly quilt finished!

The first "practice" dolly quilt has finally been finished. I was amazed at how easy it was when I didn't panic or look too far ahead but just went step by step following the instructions I had from Claudia the quilt lady and a quilt magazine. I even managed to mitre the corners of the binding first time. The nicest part was sitting quietly on the couch and hand sewing the final edge of the binding to the back of the quilt in a sort of hem stitch. That was like a meditation. I remember doing it to a baby quilt my sister and I were making when Emma was born. I used to be so wired at 4.30 am on those summer mornings after giving her a feed that I couldn't get back to sleep so I would sit in the morning sunshine and sew for a couple of minutes until I felt sleepy again. (My sister used to do all the tricky bits like mitring the corners). It was great to have old scraps to practice on before I do another one.

Anyway...here's G and dolly giving the quilt a test drive.

garden photos

For the flower lovers among you, here is an update of what's happening in our garden.

Excitingly, we have our first freesias. This is the official arbinger of spring, according to my green thumbed mother who knows these things.

Snapdragons and pansies are doing well. Can't wait for some nasturtium flowers to fill in the gaps though.

I'm not a huge fan of our native bottlebrush tree as it is huge and the car gets bird poo on it when I park on the driveway, but it has just burst into flower and does look quite spectacular at the moment, so here it is.

And....my personal favourites....the hanging baskets are coming along. They looked so fresh after the rain that poured down on the weekend. Then the sun came out and everything looked clean and sparkly.

Cheeky girl

I must say I am finding mothering G very challenging at the moment. Since she turned about 2 and a half (six months ago) she has been so determined and disobedient it nearly drives me crazy. Of course, I understand this is a normal developmental stage and that she is learning to be her own little person and enjoy some independance but it is so wearing to have a battle every half an hour over brushing teeth, wearing appropriate clothes (ie not a strappy summer dress in the middle of winter), getting in to the car, jumping on the couch etc etc etc. I try REALLY hard not to smack her as I believe it is quite wrong to hurt children and only teaches them to hurt others but there have been several times this year that I have lost my temper and smacked her on the leg or bare bottom. then I feel sick and a bit of a failure. Yesterday, she repeatedly jumped and stepped all over her big sister who was trying to chill out and watch some kids' tv after a hard day in Grade 1. You can't ignore that sort of behaviour and I cannot physically pick her up and remove her from the situation for some time out because of a back injury. I guess I'll just have to hold her calmly on my lap and talk to her instead.

This morning she was playing quietly in the playroom so I thought I'd sneak on to the computer for a few minutes. Suddenly, I looked at what she was doing. She had cut up a beautiful drawing that E had done at school for her Dad for Father's Day. I was so shocked (thinking of what E's reaction would be) that I just said "Oh Greta....oh Greta" over and over in a horrified tone of voice. That made the little thing cry and cry as she realised she had done something pretty naughty. So I gave her a big cuddle and said "You can't cut up E's pictures. We'll have to stick it back together with sticky tape". I guess the moral of the story is that I shouldn't be blogging and not supervising G. but I honestly cannot watch her like a hawk from dawn to dusk.

Similarly, we had a visiting child recently who was happily playing outside with my two girls. I was getting their dinner ready and cleaning up the house and checking on them every so often. Each time I went outside, they had found something else naughty to do like tormenting the dog, squishing red berries on the trampoline and throwing them everywhere etc. I guess not that naughty really. But I wondered at what age you can actually let your children have some freedom outside in the fresh air in the yard while you do the housework or whatever. What do you do? Am I being slack? All just normal children's behaviour, I guess, so not worth getting myself into a lather over.

Now that I have typed that all out, I feel I am raving on about nothing much. It does all seem a bit inconsequential, but I feel better for venting so thanks for listening. (I've already run similar stuff by Tammie and it's good to know that other mothers have these days too).

Edited 2pm - Just to add a more positive note. After writing that post, G and I went to our local shopping centre to buy chicken for dinner and bank the contents of her piggybank. She was such a good little girl that I felt ashamed of complaining. She drew quietly on the deposit slips while the teller counted the money and we sat at a table and had a sushi roll each for lunch instead of her sitting in the stroller eating it while I race around doing the shopping. She's getting too big for stroller anyway. Then she posted a letter in the letterbox on the way back to the car, standing on my knee to reach the slot. The lovely thing was that two separate elderley passersby who came to post their letters, gave them to G to post to make her feel special. Aren't people kind?