Taking it easy...

These hydrangeas are from our garden and almost match the lovely card I was given by one of my sweet school mum friends. I must put flowers in my room more often as it is so nice to lie in bed and look at them.

Life has been settling into a new pattern of resting and recovering and enjoying being home with my girls (and my husband and the dog, I suppose). As usual, I am constantly fighting to turn the TV off after a few hours because a) the noise of it drives me insane and b) I know the girls could be doing better things with their time. I don't mind them watching an hour or two on school days and a couple of hours on the weekend but if I left it to my family, the TV would stay on ALL DAY. Anyway...I digress. I have been enjoying doing nice quiet things with the girls. I got out my stash of quilting squares left over from making baby quilts to think about making a table runner for a friend. Both girls love playing around with the coloured squares and 'making quilts' and it occupied them for ages. Here is the little one creating.

My big girl literally spent about 2 hours arranging squares in endless variations. I was amazed. (Note the TV remote is not far away in the shot below showing where she was sitting).

One night, we had a quick game of dominoes before bed which was lovely. The girls even managed to have a game by themselves without one of us needing to participate and sort out the fights (usually caused by the youngest girl not following the rules, but what can you expect from a four year old?). I listened to them happily playing and wondered "Is this a new phase of parenting? I sure as hell hope so". Not that I don't like playing games - I'm a big fan - but sometimes I'd rather be doing other things. Here is the little girl watching her sister's domino moves. She has this sweet old fashioned nightie from Peter Alexander that makes her look like something from a period movie.

And my big girl, lolling around on the little couches, suddenly gave me a glimpse of the teenage girl she will be in 5 years. (Yikes!) What a knowing little face she has.

The game continues.

Yesterday, I had my first day at home with my little girl for since mid-December. Because of school holidays, working, my big girl having 2 weeks off school sick and me going to hospital last week, I have either been with both girls, or at work, or home alone recovering. So my Curley Whirl Girl and I had a really lovely quiet day together. I enjoyed drifting from activity to activity with her and we spent ages looking at her baby scrapbook album and the backlog of photos on the digital camera. We tidied up the playroom and it's truly amazing what you find when you start putting things away and looking in baskets and boxes. Some little things that were missing turned up in the cash register where they were doing duty as toy money.

After lunch we had a teaparty with the dollies. Check out these cakes! (Yes...we are a bit partial to buying wooden food. I'm a bit of a toy snob. I put the cheap plastic food toys away in a drawer and like to play with the pretty wooden ones).

The picnic tablecloth was carefully laid.....

The guests were seated and the teaparty began! "Mummy, would you like to be one of my guests, she said?".

Hope everyone is well and happy at your place.

home and hosed

Just a quick note to say thanks for the good wishes. The surgery went well and all my results are clear. Such a relief! Thank you, Universe! I'm feeling very lucky and loved and have been home just an hour or so. Home has never looked so beautiful.

Thanks again to everyone for their support, especially the wonderful friends who have helped looked after my girls.

Off to see the thyroid wizard

Just a quick update today. I'm off to hospital early tomorrow morning to have some nodules (lumps) removed from my thyroid. (Actually, the plan is to remove half my thyroid). The nodules have been slowly growing for a couple of years and the specialist suddenly decided last week that he would like to take them out "as we wouldn't want to leave them there for another year and then find they were cancerous". Mmmmm. Thanks Mr Surgeon. So reassuring. I thought that biopsy I had last year was all ok. Oh....it's not 100% reliable??? Oh...you forgot to tell me that part????

Anyway...won't bore you with the details but today I need to get my head together, pack my little bag and organise life for my family for the next day or two. (Should only be in hospital a night or two). Chances are the lumps will all be fine, but I am a worrier by nature (thanks for that, Mum) so am looking forward to having the whole thing over and done with. Thought I would write a quick post to ask my lovely bloggy friends to send some positive thoughts my way.

In other news, my big girl has had the first two weeks off school with a chest infection. She's better now but a bit thin and pale. Back to school today and jazz ballet after school. My mother-in-law is coming over this afternoon to stay which is a huge help. Not that my husband isn't extremely capable but I would like him with me at the hospital until I get those results.

My girl also had her first violin lesson on Friday and brought home her own instrument on loan from the school for a year. She is overjoyed with her new friend and is walking around the house making beautiful music already. I can't wait for lesson no. 2.

My little girl is growing up and quite a handful sometimes. But such a cutie and so loving. One more year to hang out with her before she is off to prep next year. I want to do some special things this year, like gymnastics or something, as her big sister did all sorts of stuff, but my little scamp has mostly been dragged around to everyone else's activities. Despite the fact that she likes to yell a lot from excitement (or rage) at home, she is very quiet when out and about and hasn't really wanted to do lots of socialising /activities.

Brisbane is busy recovering from the floods and we are now having 30+ degree heat. Very sticky and lots of cold baths required.

Take care everybody and I'll let you know how I get on.