Kathryn October 8th, 2012

I love getting stuck in to a good book…. I actually have to set my self boundaries when reading books, because if  I don’t then my house and family get slightly neglected for a couple of days or so, as I walk around the house with my nose in a book, only half paying attention to the things I should be doing!

So, my Mum asked me the other day ‘Read any good books lately?..’ and I have, but I don’t know what happened to the conversation because I never really told her about them!

Loved it!

My most recent book was ‘Of Marriageable Age’  by Sharon Maas. I had seen a few friends recommend it on Facebook and thought I’d give it a go. I’m always tentative about reading something after hearing a rave review…. I guess I am afraid it won’t meet up to the expectation. So, I picked up this book knowing that it was meant to be good, but not really knowing what it was about and it was wonderful!

“ Of Marriageable Age follows three people across three decades and three continents, in a story of intertwined dramas and mysterious legacies, set against the traditional customs of India.”

It really is a beautiful (although sometimes heart breaking) story with some beautiful characters, and a book I definitely recommend… If I say any more, I’ll be here all night – so you’ll have to ask me about it some time if you want to know more… or just read it

Your kids will love it!

While I’m here I’ll also share with you one of our current favourite kids books. It’s called the ‘The Bungle Jungle Goodnight Kiss’ and we found it on our last trip to the library…. (it’s now way overdue!)  our 3 yr old loves it and can virtually ‘read’ it to us, so next time you’re at the library it’s worth looking for! The kids love it but it holds a good reminder for us parents too!

A few of the other books I’ve read this year are The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards, and Rebekah by Daphne Du Maurier.  If it wasn’t so late I would tell you a bit more about them all, but we’ll save the reviews for another day!

I would love to hear your recommendations too… I’m due for a trip to the library!

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Kathryn October 6th, 2012

I decided to try a new play dough recipe recently….until I saw different ones on pinterest I must admit, I thought everyone just used the same recipe, but apparently not!

Anyway, the recipe I found is over here

Anyway, using this recipe, we made play dough on Wednesday and it’s been on Mr J’s ‘to do’ list every day since! His current favourite thing to do is to get his cars ‘stuck in the mud’ ….. sounds like fun and looks cool until you notice that the wheels of at least one of his cars, is now full of play dough. Well, with that in mind, today when he asked to play with the play dough, I told him that he could but that I didn’t want him to put his cars in the play dough…. it turns out I should have been a little more specific.

Special delivery… playdough anyone!?

Yep, he got it right in there!

You see, it turns out that telling a 3 year old not to put his cars in the play dough is not the same as telling him to not put play dough in his cars…. It’s also kind of ironic because one of the things I love about this recipe is that it doesn’t dry out like my other recipe did … seriously, I left it out overnight once and the next morning it was still good…. but when play dough gets stuck in every possible bit of space, you kind of wish it would dry out because it makes the cleaning process much easier!

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Kathryn October 5th, 2012

We all have to eat, and most of us enjoy good food! Today I thought I would share, and link you to a couple of my favourite recipes that I have come across on some food blogs… Just one from each blog though, or we could be here all nights with recipes that I have tried, want to try, and will never try!

Meet, The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond

This woman has everything on her blog (cooking, home and garden, entertainment, homeschooling…) I have no idea how she does it all! But her cooking page is where I frequent!

Cajun Chicken Pasta

If you like heat then this is a good one for you! If not, that’s ok too just dial it back a bit!

Our Best Bites

Ok, so this one is less like a recipe, and more like a tutorial…. I’m only sharing it with you because well, until I read it I really didn’t know much about rice, so I learnt something, and thought you might too!

All About White Rice (plus How to Cook  it 3 ways!)

…. What kind of rice do you do!?

Cat Can Cook

Now, I’ll be honest here and tell you that this is the only recipe on this site that I have ever even looked at, let alone tried but it’s my go to banana muffin recipe. I substitute the butter for oil, and have never tried it with butter but I’m sure it’s just as good, if not better!

Banana Muffins

Of course, I can’t take the credit for any of the photos above, they all come from the blogs I’ve linked you to. If however, you are enjoying reading my blog…. feel free to subscribe for email updates – see you all tomorrow!

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Kathryn October 4th, 2012

So, we know that just ‘waiting’ is not very useful…. we need to DO things while we’re waiting.

In response to my blog on Tuesday I received the following comment… and it’s SO true!

It seems to me that quite often we ‘wait’ because we don’t think we have time to finish a complete task in the time we are planning on waiting. It helps me if I identify segments of a task that can be completed in a smaller amount of time which may be as simple as getting out the saucepan that I am going to need later or putting away a few things out of the dishwasher or folding a couple of tea towels so I not only feel a bit more productive but actually reduce the time I need to spend on a larger task later. And ironically, quite often the amount of time we spend waiting ends up being a lot longer than we thought it would be; sometimes long enough to complete a whole task if only we had started it!

I’ve decided that it would be a good idea for me to have a mental list of ‘go to’ things I can do while I’m waiting in day to day situations. Things that can take 2 mins to 2 hours, but that can be started and stopped at a minutes notice. Of course for all of us, the list will be vastly different depending on the people that we are and what stage of life we’re in, but here are some of the things I can do while I’m ‘waiting’

- start dinner preparations

- read books with my boys (or read my own book)

- spend a few minutes in the garden

- send/read some emails

- make a to-do list!

Then there’s the waiting that takes days or weeks (maybe even months or years)…  here’s some suggestions for those too

While waiting for your leave to be approved… plan the holiday!

While waiting for the marriage proposal, enjoy the time you have with your loved one NOW …. and plan the wedding

While waiting for the test results, have a laugh with friends… seriously no amount of ‘waiting’ and stressing is going to change the results so deal with them when they come but until then, enjoy life!

While waiting for the baby to arrive (especially if it’s your first), enjoy the time you have left with your husband/wife and turn your attention to them!

While waiting for your children to grow up, enjoy them as they are now! Let them get sticky and messy….create the memories that will be yours (and theirs) to keep forever!

I guess to sum it all up – Live in the moment! Don’t let the anticipation, anxiety, fear and joy of what is to come, take you away from the joy and life that is yours right now!

‘Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present’ 

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Kathryn October 3rd, 2012

So, I’ve been thinking today about what sort of things I tend to wait for, these things are not ‘in the moment’ things (such as waiting for Daddy to come home, or waiting for baby to wake up) they’re things that in the end, just create missed opportunities.

- Waiting for the ‘ideal’ moment

- Waiting for the perfect weather

- Waiting for an invitation to catch up with friends

- Waiting for the kids to be ‘a bit older’

- Waiting until I’ve been able to clean my house…

The problem with all of these things is that not only am I waiting for one of them, but I’m most likely waiting for 2 or 3 of them to coincide. Which, usually results in a lot of missed opportunities, a lot of wasted time, and a lot of boredom!

So, how did I limit my waiting today? I did it in simple ways, and here’s one example….

I had told Master J that we would go to the park this morning, and then a friend called and needed to pick something up… I ordinarily would have waited for my friend, but instead I continued getting the boys ready for the park, and although she hadn’t come yet, we left! I left a bag at the door for my friend, and we fit something extra into our day that we wouldn’t have done if I had waited for her.

Another aspect of waiting occured to me, after reading a friends blog today. This one with far greater consequences than taking or missing a trip to the park! Do we wait for and expect others to give us validation? Do we wait for others to define our self worth? ….Go visit Faithful Freja and read this blog post.

…… What are you waiting for?!

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Kathryn October 2nd, 2012

Have you ever thought about how much time we spend waiting? Today my 3 year old (aka Spiderboy) literally spent 45 minutes sitting on the deck just waiting for his Dad to come home.

Master J waiting for his Daddy

It got me thinking about the amount of time I waste, waiting! Which is kind of ironic considering how much ‘waiting’ frustrates me!

My aim this week is to reduce the amount of waiting I do, and put that time to better use. I’ll try and share with you what I learn, but if any one has any tips for me, then feel free to share!

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Kathryn October 1st, 2012

Today was one of those days where although we may have done nothing that sounds amazing, it was just perfect to spend time as a family, and get things done around the house. We always love it when Daddy has an extra day at home! We rearranged our boys bedrooms (moving from sharing to separate rooms) and of course that meant taking all of those ‘things’ out of the spare room to be sorted! We also spent a bit of time out side today, the weather was perfect and I had seedlings to plant, weeds to pull up and grass to feel between my toes!

We have ended the day with a couple of movies, to just relax and enjoy being together!

So tell me! What did you do with your day? (Whether it was a public holiday or not!)

Working wear!

Beautiful Flowers

Murraya down the side of the house

Sunset on a perfect day

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Kathryn September 30th, 2012

Well, much has happened since I last blogged. We have returned from Sydney, are settled in to the house (ignore the boxes that are STILL in the garage waiting to be sorted!), now have a 3 year old in the house, and a sister and her family are now relocated back in Adelaide from Alice Springs, along with a Mum back in Adelaide from country VIC. It’s been busy, but good and in less than 3 months it will be Christmas, crazy hey!

Dallin has started working in some shared office space in town with Majoran Distillery. J is growing and learning too fast, especially now that he’s 3, we’re enjoying all the quirky things he comes out with! B is such a happy delightful boy, I have close friends who are sure they’ve  never heard him cry and he is always quick with a smile. I’m also going to try my hand at Blogtoberfest…. basically I’m promising to blog everyday of October (I’ll try not to bore you!)

Although a more detailed update it probably needed, today I’m just going to leave you with photos from the past month or so… enjoy

3rd Birthday celebrations

Miss A giving Blake her love!

I love that my boys love each other (… most of the time!)

And last but not least, here is a painting tutorial from Master J!

First, cover your hands with paint… any colour is fine!

Second, make sure it covers your WHOLE arms… mixing colours while you do it is great.

Third, carefully place your hands over your mouth. Make sure the paint is nice and wet!

Last, whether or not your Mum is looking, go for gold and cover your WHOLE face…. Seriously, by this point you’re already so covered in paint she’s not going to want to touch you!
**She may also want to hose you down on the grass before letting you enter the house and destroy her nice clean bath

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Kathryn May 29th, 2012

A few weeks ago I read this blog from Kelly at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking - if you are a parent – read it! If you have young children – definitely read it! And if you don’t have children – still go and read it because it’s message is valuable!

Much has happened since I last blogged. My parents in-law received a call to serve a 3 year mission for our church in Sydney, Dallin and Luke were succesful in their application to be part of the Pushstart program – which although a wonderful opportunity meant he needed to work in Sydney for 3 months (with 2 weeks notice) With Dallin away I took the boys to Alice Springs to see my big sister. Then, in less than a week we packed up and moved a house, said our goodbyes to Dallins parents, drove the 15 hours to Sydney (for the last 4 weeks of the Pushstart program), and my brother in-law was diagnosed with cancer. So currently we’re in Sydney, enjoying being together as a family before we return home to unpack a house in a few weeks.

This is why I needed to read that blog!

Realising that all of those things ARE my life has helped me to embrace them and learn what I can from them. Mostly though, I think it helps me be a better parent and keep a sense of humour. Remembering that my life right now IS about creating and growing a world for my 2 1/2 and 5 months olds makes it so much easier to do – suddenly it’s not a task or a job – it becomes who I am and what my life is for.

On that note, let me leave you with a conversation we had with my 2 yr old today…(and FYI – Jet is a dog…)

Me – ‘You like playing with Jet don’t you!? Would you like a dog?’

Boy – ‘I don’t eat dog! I eat cow!’

Dad – Should we get a cow instead?

Boy – Yeah, let’s get a cow.

… And just for the record eating cows is not something we discuss regularly!

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Kathryn February 27th, 2012

As a mother, the arrival of a new baby is something amazing! What’s even more amazing is the multitude of precious and special experiences that follow! I have come to discover that the more tender and precious the moment is, the harder it is to put into words…. How do you describe watching your baby smile and light up at his older brothers face? Or watching that older brother get so excited when he sees “Baby Blake waking up!!!” (Have you ever tried explaining to a 2 year old that you don’t WANT baby Blake to be waking up right now!!??)

How can you describe the place 2 little boys can hold in your heart!

Although sharing those feelings and experiences with someone who has not experienced them is almost impossible I believe that images can come closer than words ever can, have or will….

I had the wonderful opportunity this past weekend to have a mother and baby photo shoot with Blake, and Nicole Viljoen from Nicole Viljoen Photography. I was a bit apprehensive about the warm weather that was forecast but sitting in the shade by the beach was a surprisingly pleasant place to be! Despite the warm weather it was a relaxing morning and the photos are beautiful and for me, capture some of those tender moments that are so hard to describe!

To see more of these photos (and more of her work) please visit Nicole’s website at http://nicoleviljoenphotography.nicron.net/ or follow the link to Nicole’s Facebook page

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