Weekend ups and downs

I'm just warning you readers this is going to be a long post.  I have had a very productive Saturday, firstly all soccer grounds were closed due to the ever so rainy week we've had, so Saturday was a free day and it turned out to be a lovely day.   The sun was shining and a light breeze was blowing so I opened up all of the windows in the house and began de-moulding our front door and hall way.  The rain has brought more mould and every time I walk in our front door there has been a pungent mouldy smell.  I hate mould with a vengence, my shoes under the bed had started growing it and so did our front door.  We now have white walls again surrounding our front door and my shoes are now clean.  Still not sure how to rid the whole house of mould though, I guess one room at a time.  The joys of living in a rental house.

Secondly, our bunny has been pelted by the rain in his little cage and his run out in the open, so I built him a new winter run under the protection of some big trees in our back yard.  He loves it.

Toby helped me hammer in the wooden pegs to hold up the green mesh fence and Sam took the towels off the line for me as it started to rain (see I even managed to hang laundry on the line too). I think the bunny is very happy in his new home, he has been hopping, skipping and digging around his new area, getting familiar with the new yard.  I have a bit of a soft spot for our funny bunny.

I also made some rice bubble date slice too, without the choc topping this time, been eating too much chocolate lately.  I passed the recipe on to a friend's friend who had requested it and it got my taste buds tingling for it again.  Here is the recipe.  

I feel quite satisfied with my accomplishments, it's not often I get things done on a Saturday particularly during the soccer season.  However come Sunday I felt quite overwhelmed and overcome with emotion in our Relief Society lesson at church.  I think I am in awe of women and the amazing things that we can accomplish and the heavy laden baskets that we carry.    Our baskets full of worry, love and concern that we have for our families and friends and the jobs we have to do to get our families through the week...through the day.  Are we doing enough, are we not doing enough?  Are we taking care of ourselves? How is my mood affecting my children and family?  How is my health affecting my children?  How can I stay healthy?  How is that mould affecting my health?  When am I going to get the time to rid our house of all that mould?   Then there's the never ending piles of laundry....just a few of my dilemma's.

I am very humbled hearing of the roles that women take on in their lives.  It brings a very spiritual feeling in my heart knowing how special and wonderful every woman is.  How unique we all are and how each of us approach things differently.  Our lesson, taught by our Relief Society President Carli, was very thought provoking, even if I did start crying within the first five minutes of it, the lesson had me thinking about my role in my family.  Carli brings a beautiful spirit to a wonderful group of women in our Relief Society.  Although raising a family often overwhelms me, partly due to my health, and with Donald and I living so far away from our own families, I think I'm alone at times...many times.  As my weeks get busier and busier and with Donald branching out in different and various working capacities,  I feel all of those questions above and feel a little swamped at the many things that need doing.  I most often let things slide, apart from the immediate family necessities, I let things go to a point that they become problematic...like the mould on the door and shoes.  

I know that I have a beautiful circle of friends on whom I can lean on in times of need and I know that my Heavenly Father will never give me more than I can handle (so Donald keeps telling me).  I just have to remember to lean on them.  I just have to remember to lean on Heavenly Father and to pour out my troubles to bring some peace and calm to myself.  I have to remember to use those tools given to me, prayer, scripture reading, reading inspirational talks from our church leaders and serving others.  One step at a time....one step at a time.  

In the meantime I shall still enjoy the rain and the rainbows and the colourful leaves....they are such a good distraction from nasty things like mould and laundry and house cleaning......

Fergus the Frog

Toby had a little friend stay with us from pre-school for the week and this is what he got up to....

Wet weather weekend

This weekend soccer was cancelled, all of the fields were/are still closed, it was lovely to have a sleep in at last.  It has been a very wet week and walking to and from school has seen me going through a couple of pairs of trousers each day, as from the knee down they get soaked due to the rain.  Saturday afternoon I went in  search of the right pair of gumboots for me.  I searched online, very expensive and takes too long to ship when you want them yesterday.  So I went searching high and low and round about, and finally found myself a pair just right.  Of course they were found in the last place I looked, Target, at the end of the day when all hope had run out to find the right colour and the right size.  I found them and they spoke to me.  I'm afraid the leopard skin ones didn't.  They were a bargain at 30% off and I felt rather pleased with my selection.  So here they are, my red spotty gumboots, or wellies or galoshes, what ever you fancy to call them.

Toby was so excited when I bought them home, he said "Now you can splash in puddles with me!" and that is exactly what we did this afternoon.

The weekend also saw us piecing together my Babette blanket that is starting to grow.  Remember my dream was to crochet one?  Well it's happening, slowly but surely, I'm figuring out my colours and what works in the squares and what doesn't.  I'm really enjoying this project.

Maybe soon I'll get some better photo's, the light isn't the greatest at the moment with so many dark rain clouds around, our house becomes very dark, so am waiting for a little more sun and light.  I've still got many more squares to crochet but I'm plugging away.  It's been a good weekend, I didn't get much crochet done though as we were invited out to dinner both Saturday and Sunday nights, most crochet gets done in the evenings with my feet up, covered in my Autumn leaf blanket and the tv on.  It's a very cosy way to spend these cooler nights.  I am actually quite enjoying these rainy days, especially now I've got my boots to go splashing, now all I need is a raincoat and a good umbrella to match.

What does one do...

when it's cold and rainy...

...and the leaves are falling rapidly off the trees?

We dream of things that we could do...

...I dream of the perfect Autumn leaf, with colours vibrant and marvelous...so I wander around in the rain searching

...and I've found many

 

...and then we work on my little man's dream...to build a pirate ship.

Oh the fun to be had on a wet and rainy day!!

We're waiting...

...for my sister to write her own travelogue blog so we can follow her journeys and adventures from Ireland.  She's been gone way too long and it's about time she shared with the world and her family the marvelous sites she's seen and the wondrous photo's she and Neil have taken.

We want to see the photo's and hear the story behind this fellow....

on the Skellig Islands....

...and the possible smugglers caves that await down below the millions of bird droppings.  We want to hear those descriptive words that will inspire her nephews to love writing, and to travel with you to those far off places where their uncle dislocated his shoulder while snow boarding and their aunt climbed the boulders in France.

How you ate wild strawberries, picked scary wild mushrooms, cooked them and ate them and climbed every ruin that you could.

We can't wait to read about your travels, we are waiting most patiently.  Yes I know we can read them in your emails and join them up with the photo's from face book, but wouldn't it better to have the words and the pictures together in the one place?  Lots of words and lots of pictures.

Please, please, please Gabby

Pretty please start a travel blog.

We miss you guys so!!

Morning leaf offerings

....from Ethan, because he knows how much I love them.

This is where I work

I have a job.  It's not my mothering, house organising, driving kids around, everyday job.  This one is organising and tidying someone elses house and yes it's a house cleaning job.   I've been cleaning houses for other people since I was 17.  My first full time job was a Nanny/housekeeper looking after 3 children on a Cotton farm in Goondiwindi, in southern Queensland.  Yes I know those are sunflowers below but when I worked there they had only just picked the cotton and turned over the fields, so I'm afraid I don't have any cotton photo's.

I really can't say I enjoyed housecleaning, and cleaning windows and ironing were the bane of my existence, cooking a meal was a little foreign to me....but it earned me money. $150/week to be exact.  I used to drive the oldest child to the bus stop 20 minutes up the driveway and back from their home to the main road every morning and afternoon.  I would spend half a day each week on the ride on mower listening to my walkman, cutting the grass around the house and back paddock to keep the snakes at bay.  The youngest two children and I would do paint and craft activities and exploring around the property in our day.  What I really liked about my first job was being out in the bush far away from the suburbs and the city but living in a family environment.  

You see my nanny job provided me with a bedroom, food and involved me in the family's activities and a bit of adventure in a farming community.  I cared for their children and in turn they looked after me as it was my first time living away from home.

So I guess it was the atmosphere of farm and family life that drew me to the country doing what I do best, looking after children and fitting in with another family.

A few years later after I had been living overseas for a couple of years I started studying and I picked up a few house cleaning jobs.  It was a nice bit of money in my pocket while I was a student.  This job I have now is probably one of the nicest house cleaning jobs I've had to do.  The reason why I don't mind doing this job is that it gives me a little pocket money and is in a place where I would like to live myself.  It's half an hour away from where we live now, but it's in the rural outskirts of Sydney.  There is natural bushland all around.

There are fruit trees...

and my favourite Autumn trees, Liquid Ambers and Japanese Maples.

It is peaceful, quiet and there is so much space.  I often hear the Bell birds, a donkey braying nearby and a cow lowing off in the distance but no traffic noise.

That is why I like my job, nothing to do with cleaning, I really don't enjoy cleaning, but the atmosphere that I get to soak in once a fortnight.  I can take Toby who just loves it out there as much as I do, he helps me and he gets to explore.  Toby tells me he wishes we had this house because they have stairs and trees and space (and a big house).....this is what he loves doing.

.....and a bit of this

I'm glad I'm still enjoying the things I did when I was 17, I just wish I didn't have to do the cleaning bit.  One day we'll have our own place with space, room to run, trees to climb, pumpkins to grow, Autumn leaves to romp in and to be adventurous in our own place......one day......it's still in my dreams.

I am grateful for my family

....and my camera

Vagabond Spider

I found this little fellow in our back yard.  He's been there for a few weeks now.  Nothing like a little newspaper to keep the chill out.

More hats

Sam and Donald now have a warm winter hat each that I have crocheted.  We were driving to church on Sunday morning, all the boys were wearing their warm hats, when a chorus piped up from the back seat "When are you going to make yourself a hat Lisha?"....."When I've got a little time, life has been a bit busy lately" I replied.  I have a feeling they thought I felt left out not wearing one.  Even if I did I wouldn't be wearing it on my newly washed and blow dried hair on the way to church.  However I have loved seeing these boys wearing their hats at night after a bath or first thing in the morning when it's a bit chilly.  I am just starting on my own hat at last, my fingers have been itching to start one.

Of course Donald had a little extra special work done on his hat, it was a little difficult trying to crochet a maple leaf into the hat so a little stitch work did the trick.  Donald was most chuffed with his hat.

Afternoons under the golden Liquid Amber tree

Mothers Day to me means...

Making cupcakes for the school Mothers Day morning tea

Morning tea with my boys and lots of other yummy goodies

Little messages on my bed

Flowers and hugs

Home decorated cards and mugs

That's me!!  I feel loved!!

Happy Mothers Day

xxx