Changes and a new start in 2009 . . .

What a month or two!! Good things, bad things, surprising things all rolled into a very short period of time!!

DH and I hit a very bad patch and effectively hit rock bottom. It was either sort it out or move on :( After a lot of talking and figuring out where we are in life and where we actually want to be, we have decided to sort it out :) Things have been much better since (although there have been a few blow ups along the way) and I do really hope that things continue along this road. Fingers crossed. We have both made compromises and one of mine is to lay off him a bit about my "greenie shit" . . . oops.

So that aside, Chritsmas was, well, Christmas. As always we spent FAR too much money, got given gifts that we REALLY have no use for or just don't like, and spent the whole time running around and listening to other people whinge . . . sigh. Christmas Eve at my Dad's was by far my favourite time but was punctuated with Emily throwing up all over Nn while we were opening pressies! Nice.

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year at the Tweed Coast in a cabin which was really no bigger than a small caravan. Lets just say that the experience was . . . interesting . . . and I can't see us doing it again in a hurry. Maybe in something bigger but there really was no room to even turn around, which wasn't great with a 2 1/2 yo going through a defiant stage!! This was also just before our 'rebirth' of our relationship too, so being in such close confines while arguing constantly is never a good idea!!

Some exciting news from me is that 1: I have a new sewing machine . . . WOOT!! :D and 2: I am starting to study this year!! I am freaking out a bit because it has been nearly 10 years since I finished school (my reunion is coming up later this year!) but I am SUPER excited to get my teeth into it!! I am going to be studying an Advanced Diploma in Naturopathy, which also gives me an Advanced Diploma in Western Herbal Medicine and Advanced Diploma in Nutrition at the end of it :D I am doing it externally and have up to 6 years to complete it but hope to have it done in about 3. The plan is to get qualified by the time the girls are in school so that I have a 'real' job to go to, as well as using my brain a little more than "How many nappies do I need for today" or "How can I turn this toilet roll into a snake" lol

Now in surprising news, there are 2 new pregnancies in our (well nn's) family. My Step-brother-in-law and his girfriend are expecting baby #5 (following 4 boys!) and my bil is expecting bub #1 with his girlfriend. So come this time next year, there will be at least 3 new nieces/nephews running (well maybe laying) around!!

This is a huge post so I think I might end it there. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes over this trickytime. Things are looking brighter every day so I think I have made the right decision :)

More on my crap gifts . . . and a win!!

The knob on my camera broke on Monday night while putting up the Christmas tree, so please forgive the dodgy photos, I seem to be stuck in 'sports' mode :O

Firstly one more Chritmas vent . . . I specifically hadn't taken Em to go see Santa until nn could come with us because I know that he likes to be there for those sort of things . . . we leave Em with my MIL for a couple of hours while we go to do some Christmas shopping and she has taken it upon herself to take Em down to the shops and get a photo with Santa :( It was the good Santa too, the one we had planned on taking her to . . . Emily didn't smile but MIL bought the photo anyway and we've put it in a frame next to Em's bed and every time Em looks at it she calls it her 'no smile' LOL Oh well, not like I can do anything about that now . . .

Okay, back to my 'crap' homemade presents . . .

Very Hungry Caterpillar - this is for one of my one year old twin nieces birthday which is a week before christmas. I did make a felt board for it too, but I'm not happy with it, so I'm trying to find one now.

A wall hanging for Z. The butterflies were made by my Grampa :) I haven't glued them down yet, so they might be a little off centre.

Felt food for my nearly 2 yo twin nieces :) You can pull all the toppings off the pizza and I will have a sandwich still on the way . . .

Hair clips and ties - a tonne of these still on the way . . . in a family with 8 girls under 8 and then friends too, these will never go astray!


Pencil rolls for some friends kids . . . I have made one for an older child that I no longer need, so I might put it up on buy4baby to try and cover some costs . . .


An upcycled purse for my 15yo SIL I love this pattern!! It was made with this online tutorial. I have a purse made with the same tute in a cherry print :D

And finally some knitted face washers. The rainbow one is bamboo and the purple one is corn fibre!!

I have also made body butter and lip balm for the female in laws with organic coconut oil, fairtrade organic cocoa butter, local beeswax and sweet almond oil, but haven't made a final decision on how to pretty up the jars/tubes yet lol

Now, to my win :D On the Aussies Living Simply site they held a raffle, where everyone who wanted to be included offered up a prize and then the prizes were split up between x people. And I won one of the prizes :D There is still some on the way, but so far I have received handmade goats milk soaps and handcream, books on herbs, bread making and a recipe index, a beautiful handmade bag, giftcards and wrap, a cd full of info on self sufficient living*, radish seeds*, a decorative butterfly* (*these not in the pic because they arrived today!) and another one which was a little . . . odd. A pair of candy panties/g-string . . . with a used by date of Dec 2006 . . . that was interesting to explain to Em who wanted to eat the lollies :O Gave me a giggle though.

Feeling defeated . . .

Probably sounds melodramatic, but plans just aren't falling into place at the moment and it is making me a little depressed. I had visions of having a simple Christmas, with minimal fuss , homemade or simple presesnt for the kids, no presents for the adults (who need nothing anyway) but instead it is fast becoming a consumerist nightmare again - the only difference being that it is even more expensive this year because I have bough materials to make things (or have even completed some things) but my gifts aren't seen as good enough and nn doesn't want to give his family my "shit presents" :(

I have also 'bought' gifts from 3 charity organisations this year, TEAR Australia, World Vision Smiles and Oxfam Unwrapped but apparently they are 'crap gifts' too (well one of them is literally . . . hehe) We are at the stage that we get to every year when nn is sick of going to the shops and so our $20 per person budget gets stretched to $30+ per person because he *knows* that such and such would like something and so lets just get it . . . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

My family does a Secret Santa that all of us girls had decided that it was unneccessary to buy for adults anymore - but then some of the boys got huffy and so now it is back on. At least that means we buy for 2 people and not the full 7 (not including ourselves).

The girls are another story again. Their budget is between $100 - 150 each (including Santa Pressies) They have each had about $50-60 spent on them from us and the Santa Pressie is meant to be a trampoline. We can get an 8' round tramp for $200 including the nets and padding but nn has decided that 8' isn't big enough for our 2.5y and 8mo . . . they need at least a 10' and it can't be the one available online so it is going to cost a MINIMUM of $360 . . . and hey if we are spending that much why not pay the extra $60 and get a 12' . . . ARGH!!! A 12' would take over most people's backyards . . . Yes we have a big yard now but if/when we move early/mid next year we may not have the same room. Everything has to be bigger and better than everyone else and it is driving me nuts!!!

Why can't Christmas be about enjoying each others' company rather than who can spend the most???

Long time no blog . . .

Been having some personal problems lately, so not much blogging going on . . . hopefully getting back on the right track now . . .

I can't believe it is one month to go until Christmas!! My immediate family celebrates on Christmas Eve, Nn's mum's side Christmas day and his Dad's side Boxing Day!! What a run around!! And then we are going away for about a week in between Christmas and New year to arrive back in time for Bec's 30th!!

My plan was to make pretty much everyone's pressies this year but it just isn't going to happen :( Not enough hours in the day! I did have something in mind for Bec's older girls, but NN has gone and bought them MP3 players . . . so there goes that idae!! They will still gt some home made hair clips though . . . In a 4 week peroid, we have one set of twin nieces turning 1, another 1st b'day, Christmas, Bec's 30th and another set of twin nieces 2nd b'day!! EEK!!! There is 6 nieces, 4 nephews and 2 other friends little girls, plus our two!! Lots to do!!!

In other news, Zoe is now crawling!! Everything is going so quickly it is scary!!

On a totally different note, but before I go, we got our electricity bill and it is down 3 kw/day - and that was with only starting to pay attention halfway through the first month of the quarter (and being very bad in the first part!! oops!!) My goal this quarter is 15kw/day - hopefully better!!

Community Gardening . . .

I have just found a great community garden located not too far from me :) I wish there was one closer, but there isn't so this will be fine for now. It is run but Disability Support and they meet up 3 times a week, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. At this stage I will only be going on the weekdays because nNn isn't too keen on interupting our weekend . . .

By just going the past 2 times it has opened my eyes to how much I still have to learn about, well, everything! Besides the food growing side of things, dealing with the centre's clients who range from non-verbal onwards. It is a very big learning curve!!

The people who run it are lovely too. They won't let you go home empty handed, so I am learning to cook with many new foods . . . I even made moussaka for the first time when they gave me several egg plants! On Wednesday I am going to officially join, which is a $10 fee for the whole year. I have received more than that amount in food and it feels really good to be among it all.

I have met Ellice from ALS and her gorgeous little girl Zahli and have arranged to regularly buy fresh eggs from her. I know that Em will love Zahli and she had a great time last Wednesday diggin in the dirt :)

I am really looking forward to tomorrow afternoon :)

Broken the Clothing challange . . . already :(

But it wasn't intentional!!! Em threw up all over her skirt at the shops today (feeling much better now) so I had to buy her a pair of shorts . . . well I did't HAVE to, but it was either do that or have her walk around in just her knickers, and when the car was parked at the library, which is across a main road) I thought better of it . . .

But one small $4.19 hiccup is not going to deter me!! I will keep trying!

On an unrelated note, I sent my first letter to council today :O I have requested some books at the library via their online service and when the first book arrived, I received a letter. I have mde the suggestion that since you can make requests onlinne, perhaps they can advise you of it's arrival via email . . . no doubt I'll get a letter for each of the other 3 books I've requested lol

Blergh weekend . . .

Everyone is sick here at the moment :( When I went to pick Em up form kindy on Friday they said that she hadn't been herself and she had coughed and sneezed at the same time at lunch covering her sandwich in strawberry flecked phlem . . . nice. She started throwing up overnight and we were still going at 4am this morning. No sleep happening here. And now it is the other end . . .

I think Nn has the same thing. Although he hasn't actualy thrown up he has felt like he has needed to all weekend and has spent most of his time in bed :( Z is okay (touchwood) but has just got her first tooth comig through so she is cranky anyway *sigh* And I have a cough I just can't shake. Z gets her 6 month needles tomorrow can't belive it has gone so quickly!

As a plus though, I got outside yesterday while everyone was in bed and pulled a tonne of weeds out of the lawn (before they flowered too, so hopefully that should stop so many coming up again)

Our first tomato is nearly ready, just going red now, and we have another 6 in formation and ANOTHER 8 flowers on it at the moment too!! Love it! Our tiny capsicum is just starting to bub up again - I counted 8 buds - on a plant no higher than 15cm?? Weird! We have chillis flowering too :) I pulled out the last of the broccoli yesterday - didn't really eat much of it! Z didn't like the florrets, but would eat the stems pureed (after scraping away all the woody bits) so at least it wasn't all wasted! I don't think I'll plant them again in a hurry.

Three of the 5 lettuce seeds have sprouted and I am going to do another sowing this week. Our last lot of lettuce have bolted, so I am waiting for the seeds to finally be ready to plant because I don't want to buy any more seedlings and I really likes those lettuce.

We have 2 strawberry plants. One has 1 berry a few days away from picking and about 14 more flowers . . . the other has nothing!! Not sure what to do with it. In Jackie French's book, Backyard Self Sufficiency, it says that she hits hers with the whipper snipper after their first fruiting . . . maybe I should clip this one right back and hope it produces next round??

My loofa is coming along :) going a lot slower than I had expected though?? I was hoping that the actual 'fruit' would be ready for Christmas pressies, but I can't see it happening. Oh well, there is always Mother's Day and birthdays . . .

Better go and wash Em's sheets yet again . . . I hope she i better again soon - it is horrible to see them sick :(