This Moment

An idea via Soulemama

{this moment} – A Friday ritual (Saturday here!).  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Feel free to leave a link to your moment in the comments for others to see.

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Quiet Moments

Sometimes all is quiet here and I don’t need to be alarmed.  I put a CD book on for the girls today added some lambskins and peace reigned supreme.  They didn’t even spy me taking this photo.

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The Joys of Two

I must say that two is one of my favourite ages (should I be ducking right now?).  Jairah is learning more words as the each day passes.  Quite the little talker.  I love that he has certain universal words for what he wants.  He was eating grapes today and when he asked for more he said ‘more nuts, more balls’.  Well, I suppose they are ball like and nut like in shape!  Door also has universal meaning.  Not only does it mean an actual door, it also means he wants the lid off something or wants you to open a box, bag or help with a toy.

Whenever he wakes up from a sleep the first thing he says to me is ‘el-lo Mama’.   Often, throughout the day Jairah takes my hand as we walk around the house or the garden, with him saying ‘Lub-i-lee day’ (lovely day).  Melts my heart.  Sure we have had many in-depth conversations, about what, I do not know, but it is the joy I see on his face, while I am engaging in these conversations with him, tell me I seem to be saying the right thing at the right time (mother’s intuition, right?).

We have Fantasy Island moments whenever a plane or helicopter go over our house.  He will shout, rather enthusiastically, ‘d-plane, d-plane’.  Oh yes, he is obsessed with planes, trains, automobiles anything with wheels actually!

He calls Tenneille ‘t-neille or Na-neille’ and Scarlett is ‘Lar-let or Lar-lee’. Scarlett loves him, Tenneille, well, she sees him as the babe who took over most of mama’s lap, even though there is equal room for them all. Jairah often screams Scarlett’s name rather loudly.  I suspect it is because Scarlett is very in touch with her emotions and isn’t afraid to use them, regularly.  He is learning from the best after all.

The love shared between Tenneille and Jairah goes a little like this:

Jairah: ‘My mama’

Tenneille: ‘No, my mama’

Jairah: ‘MY MAMA’

Tenneille: ‘NO, she’s my mama and I love her more than anyone else in the whole world’.  This is followed by some hitting, elbowing and just a wee bit of screaming.  Of course I am in the middle of them fighting to get my lap space all to themselves.  Apparently I can be quite the popular person around these parts!

On the subject of screaming, I only have to brace my ears once in a while, while he feels the need to scream at something or someone, that isn’t doing what he wants (like the example given above).  Oh yes, he gives the girls a run for their money in that department.

Sometimes he just wonders around singing ‘happy, happy’ over and over.  He always has a smile, even if up to some sort of mischief.  ‘Oh no, ho dear’ feature heavily in his vocabulary too, for many assorted reasons!

To our little boy, you bring sunshine into our lives and put smiles on our faces.  xx Mama & Co.

'Noy night' (Night night)

'Oooo WOW'

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Little Girls Who Party Hard…

fall asleep very early!
We went to a BBQ on Sunday afternoon hosted by my dad and his partner.  A few of her grandkids are similar in age to our kids.  Tenneille buddied up with one in particular who is the same age as her.  They insisted on having a sleepover.  Apparently they were still awake at 1am the next morning talking and having a wonderful time.  Come 5pm yesterday, Tenneille had crashed out on the couch.  She slept until 6.30am this morning.  She took no rocking to fall aleep tonight either.

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Quinoa Summer Salad

This is my own recipe.  It has a lovely refreshing taste.  Of course you can enjoy it anytime of the year!  Quinoa is gluten free, a good source of protein, high in magnesium and iron and contains essential amino acids.

Quinoa Summer Salad

Ingredients:

3 cups of cooked quinoa
2 tomatoes (I use roma)
1/2 cup olives, chopped (I use stuffed Spanish olives)
1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped

Dressing:

Juice of one lemon
1 tsp cummin
1 tbsp oil (I used either GM free Canola or Olive oil)
1/2 tsp salt

Cool the quinoa under cold running water.  Drain and place in bowl.  Add chopped olives, parsely and tomatoes.  Mix gently.  Place dressing ingredients in a container and shake until well combined.  Add the dressing just before serving the salad, mixing it through thoroughly.

Enjoy!

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I’m a knittin’ me a hat, in Summer?

Well this week started out quite cool.  In fact we lit the fire twice.  Nothing like a fire to add to the ambiance of the festive season.  I decided to get my knitting out, because wood fires provoke that in me, and re-cast a hat that I had frogged a while back.  It isn’t a complicated pattern, it’s just I, in all my wisdom, took it (the first version) along to a craft night held with a group of friends.  That was a big mistake, as I got talking and stuffed up my knitting.  I am quite the multi tasker, but not when it comes to knitting.  Now I should know this, but every now and again, my ego gets the better of me and I feel the need to knit in company.  Perhaps, if I did make New Year resolutions, at the top of my list would be:
Don’t try and talk while knitting, or knit while talking, hmm, we’ll see how long it takes me to try that out again (probably not all that long).

Anyway, the hat.   It is called Sideways Grande Hat.  I am using Moda Vera Mousse yarn which is 70% wool, 30% soya.  It’s lovely and soft.  The colour I would describe as petrol or perhaps peacock blue. The pattern is from a book called  Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin.  I love this book (a gift from a dear friend) and can see myself knitting quite a few of the patterns.  I’m lovin’ the hat on the front cover (Side Slip Cloche).  It will be the next thing to cast on after I have finished the Sideways Grande.

Please feel free to link your latest knitting project.  I always love to see what other people are knitting.

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This Moment

Borrowing an idea from Soulemama

{this moment} – A Friday ritual (Saturday here!).  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Feel free to leave a link to your moment for others to see.

Posted in Family Life, This Moment | Tagged | 3 Comments

Our Grand Plans, But First, A Shed!

The new shed Greg has been building is coming along nicely.  It will be great to store away some of our crap stuff.  Jairah enjoyed a little tea party at the building site.  He had a lovely time pouring imaginary tea and milk into all of his cups complete with great sound effects.  He is getting really good at imitating Greg hammering nails. Ladders are of special interest too!   I must say, Jairah is really into this reno’ caper, after all, he has the morning smoko all sorted for a start!

Keeping the builder happy

Now for our grand plans!  When we bought this place 18 months ago, the previous owners had done very little.  The garden was overgrown and nothing much had been done since the house was built, circa 1980’s.  The apricot sheer curtains were the first thing to go!  What a difference that made.  Thankfully the style of the house is actually quite contemporary and hasn’t dated too much, it just needs some tweaking.  We need to paint inside and out, update the bathrooms and kitchen (currently apricot in colour), re-seal slate, change door handles, a new entry door, build a deck, retaining walls, finish the laundry we have half renovated and general garden work. We have given ourselves till spring next year to complete our list.  We find it helps to have a timeline to work to, otherwise time slips away, yet the jobs still remain.  I am really quite excited and I’m looking forward to sharing our renovation journey with you.

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Papa Want Some Help?

While I have been laying low with the flu, Greg has been busy building.  Today was the vegie patches.  It was a family affair of course, with lots of help from Tenneille and Jairah.  Ah, to be the mama with the camera capturing the moments.

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The Aftermath

We had a lovely Christmas day.  My mum and dad were here to celebrate with us.  The kids had so much fun unwrapping gifts.  We have glitter strewn all throughout the house.  Oh, yes, I am beginning to feel like a real fairy, I’m sparkling so bright!  The girls disappeared into their bedroom for the entire afternoon and played with their new gifts.  Jairah had fun absconding with everyones gifts, but his own, much to his sisters protests.

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