Wordless Wednesday 6 February

Here is my favourite photo of Andres 9th birthday 

 

 

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

December '12 and January '13 in Numbers

I can't believe that I have been keeping my numbers for a whole year.  December has gone and here is my post finally out of the drafts file and ready to go with January taggedon the end.

• 2 birthday parties organised.  DD turned 12 and DS2 had an early party as we are away for his birthday when he turns 9.

• 3 Christmases we attended.  All family ones and I have to say by the time the last one came around we were well Christmassed out.

• 3 children finished school for the year.  They were very tired and grumpy and very please that the summer holidays are finally here.

• DH was away with work for 14 days right over Christmas.  We did a skype Christmas morning which is something that is the best option when DH is away overseas with work.  It was Hong Kong this year but he has been all around the world on different years.

• I have started doing Couch to 5k again and am at week 5 (I started at week 4).  I am so unfit but it will be all worth it in the end.  I hope to do a 5k fun run in February.

• 0 mornings of sleeping in as Hayden is still waking at 5.30 am.

Then there was January

• No days of rain.  Zero that is .....nil drops of rain.   Our grass is very dry, our gardens very thirsty and my washing getting dry on the line everyday.

• I started Project 365 fresh and took a photo a day and a few more for good measure.  Long may this committment last.  My pages and photos can be found on my blog here.

• Hayden spent 16 days in residential respite care which gave us a well needed break. I got 16 nights of uninterrupted sleep and 16 sleep ins while he was away.

• 4 of us went camping for 14 days at Ohiwa Harbour and had a fabulous time.  The weather was perfect and our airbed stayed up.

 

(We are with friends toasting Marshmellows on the beach.  Such a wonderful time had by all.)

• DH has just spent 31 either on leave or one off days from work.  Lucky me...he was on holiday with us and then spent time painting the house.  If you look closely you can see my DH by the front door painting.

• Hayden gets home and the next morning we have our 1st emergency of the year.  Well on a real emergency but the 1 power cord for Haydens feeding pump was broken and so his machine could not be charged.  It took 5 phone calls and 6 hours to sort it out so that 1 little boy could have 500mls of Nutrini RTH food over night.

• Talk about high maintenance Hayden then needed 1 trip to the hospital for the usual blood tests and 1 trip to 2 pharmacies for medication and then finally he needed 3 new mattress protectors.  All of that in 5 days not bad really.

• 2 of three children started school and so Andre was at school 4 days at the end of January, Mckenzie did 2 days and Hayden is yet to start.  

• I covered 18 books for the start of school.  That was only for 2 children.

• Andre had his 9th birthday.  My how he is growing up.

I am linking this post to the Notes on Paper blog.

Monday Menu 4 February

Here we are posting a day late but none the less a menu.  School has been back a week and there is no rest as everything else starts up at the same time.

So here is my menu for this week.

Monday    freezer meal

Tuesday  easy fried rice

Wednesday  ham steaks with nectarine salsa, baked potato and garden salad.

Thursday  ham, cheese and vegetable frittata, potato and salad

Friday  pizza homemade.

Saturday  chicken nuggets with potatoes baked and salad.

Sunday  leftovers.

 

(this is my version of Easy Fried Rice)

Fridays Fabulous Five #29

Here we are the first of my finds for the year.

• With school luches back on the menu this post from Planning with Kids about lunches etc is a good start for the year.
• Since I am considering cloud storage as one of my methods for backing up photos I thought that this article from Digital Trends did a nice summary that I could understand.
• How about 50 things to do before you turn 12.  Now I think that this could apply to any child.
• I am looking at some music to help me keep my running pace up so I might need to read this little list some more.
• Since my Word for 2013 is Happiness reading this really resonated with me.

January 2013

I have been working away at staying on track with my Photo a day diligently so far.  I have even finished my pages off for this month and it only 1 February.  So here they are.

So all of these pages we created with the following products.....template, dates from Life in a Box from Weeks and Wildflowers.  Papers, borders, flowers ribbons all from Life 365 Hodge Podge 1 and fonts small font and 2peassquish.

Wordless Wednesday 30 January

I am back all refreshed and here is my photo taken while on holiday at Ohiwa Beach.

My two children walking to the water on a stinking hot day with White Island (a volcano) smoking in the far distance.

 

 

I am linking this post up to My Little Drummer Boys.

A First Meal.

So McKenzie is now of an age when I feel she should start to learn to make meals.  She can bake cookies but they are not going to be much good to here when she is hungry for an evening meal and out in the world fending for herself.  She is not learning food technology at school so it is up to me.

So when we got home from camping I decided we would start with a meal that was very versatile.....mince.  So under my direction for the meat and by herself for the rest here was our meal that night........mince (with the hidden vege in it, new potatoes and garden salad.

So she will have another go when school has got underway and I think she should have a try at meatloaf.  Hmmm what do you think?

Monday Menu 28 January

Oh my, it has been three weeks since I have written on my blog.  It seems like longer.  But now that I have been on holiday and taken time to refresh myself I am ready to get back to life, you know the one that has me rushing around everywhere.

 

(This is my view as I sat on the sand under our shade while on holiday.  In the distance you can just see White Island smoking (thats that white in the sky that looks like cloud).  I have a book in hand and my children happily playing as you do while at the beach.)

The school year is starting tomorrow and I am more ready than usual to get up and going.  One one child will starting and the other two will take the next week to get started.  So tonight One lunch box is sitting in the fridge ready to go.  The alarm clock is set and school bag with stationery ready to go.

Now menu planning is necessary and will help keep me sane.  So here is this weeks plan.

Monday   Spaghetti bolignaise

Tuesday  Chicken Curry Pasta

Wednesday  Spaghetti Carbonara

Thursday  Chicken with baken potato and green salad

Friday  homemade pizza...I am going to have a try at something on the list.

Satuday  Indian Coconut Chicken Curry

Sunday  leftovers.

I am linking this post to I'm an Organising Junkie

What is an Idiot?

According to this little conversation Hayden who has a cognative age of about 3years suddenly decided to add his thoughts to use who were trying to help him.

Hayden  No I can do it I'm not dumb

We were all silent for a moment as we could not believe that he could even think of something like that, and then let him have a go for himself.

Then I was reminded, by my lovely friend Mary-Anne of this great quote


Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believe that it is stupid.

― Albert Einstein

Project 365 May 2012

I will keep posting these even though we are on a new year.  It is helping to keep me going. 

All the pages are made with Everyday Life templates and SS 11 kit from Weeds and Wildflowers.  These two products made it really simple to do even though I am behind.