Planetary alignment

Sometimes we are blessed to see amazing and incredible things right before our eyes. Early this morning, there was a multi planetary alignment in the sky that was really visible on the horizon right before dawn. It might have been dark and freezing cold, but it was absolutely worth getting up for.

I even managed to get the kids up for a look. I honestly believe it's little things like this that they will remember. The stars were so clear that I could even catch them in a photo with my phone! Perfect for stargazing. That's Venus lower on the horizon, Jupiter with Mars by his side and Saturn was visible too, higher up and back a little, but I couldn't get it all in one shot. Absolutely stunning. 

It's things like that, that make you realise just how small we are. Our earth, huge as it is, is a teeny, tiny speck in the universe, infinite beyond our comprehension. To think God knows us all and loves us all individually is incredible. It truly is an explanation of the hymn, How Great Thou Art!

The BEST rocky road

This weekend has been full of baking at the besties house. I've made loaf after loaf of banana bread and then started on rocky road. It was a free for all in the kitchen, with me being told, "use whatever you want." So I did.

Which led to me making what I honestly believe is the best rocky road I have ever made.

Easter Rocky Road

Melted Cadbury Crunchie easter eggs/ bunnies

Broken Tick Tock biscuits

Chopped mixed Natural Confectionary Company lollies

Broken pretzels

Chopped pink and white marshmallows

Sprinkles

Combine all ingredients with melted chocolate and place in dish. 

Top with sprinkles and refrigerate to set. Cut into chunks and enjoy.

10/10. Highly recommend.

 

A spot of golf

This morning we popped down to the Bakers Hill golf club for a round of kiddy golf coaching. Jen and Mat's kids go each Saturday morning and because we are staying at mums this weekend due to the painters doing the doors and frames with the strong smelling paint... we decided to tag along too.

My kids were surprisingly good at it! Who knew. I remember playing once when I was realllllly young (at Bakers Hill too! haha) and it took me like shots to get the ball into the damn hole, but my kids were incredible. Got it in, in under 6 shots and had the golfing coach suggest to them both that they should be playing more regularly. Especially Joseph who was thrilled to pieces. Honestly struggling with finding a sport that's a good fit for him, so we may have to follow that up.

The kids all had the best time though. Lots of fun and laughs as we made our way around the bush course. Big apology to the people behind us as it certainly was not in a short amount of time.

Maddie was loving her cuddles with baby Sophie.

Alex was only interested in drinking the hot chocolate that Uncle Mat had picked up for me from the bakery.

Joseph our champion for the day, teeing off on the final hole. 

Then having a little chat about technique to the coach.

Nearly there and time for some fun at Uncle Mat and Aunty Jen's house.

Can't beat all the fun to be had in the bush! ❤

 

Lego Masters

We have the absolute best husband/ wife team running our primary aged 7-11 activities at church. They come up with the most fun things ever and this weeks was Lego Masters. My kids (and I am assuming all the other kids ae obsessed with Lego Masters on TV and were so excited to get in and get started. They were told to build something from the Old Testament as that is what we are studying this year in Come Follow Me.

I was so impressed with what they all built too! I have no idea where these amazing ideas come from. Joseph was paired with a boy a little older than him and they built Moses parting the Red Sea, they had a little boat overturned by the wave which I thought was really cool.

So creative!

Maddie and her partner created a temple. I loved it, all white and gold. Technically not from the Old Testament, but totally allowed by the leaders due to King Solomons temple. There was also a Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel.

I loved watching their creativity and how much fun they had. I am not so secretly hoping that this will be a regular activity as everyone loved it so much.

Yay for Primary activities!

Cyst Removal

This is Doug's back just hours after having an emergency surgical procedure to remove a sebaceous cyst from his back. For years he has had a cyst growing on his back, right in the middle along his spinal line. It's been checked regularly by our GP who assured him it was fine and that it didn't need to be removed or have anything done. It had even grown to about an inch long and sticking quite far out from his back. They are something that just happens for some people. Unless it got infected...

Which of course it did. It went from being a lump that didn't bother him to swollen and infected within a matter of days and our GP referred us to a specialist. Upon calling I found out the waiting list without private health was around a year, going private without insurance would cost us $180 for the initial consult, then probably $2-4k for the surgery. As "luck" would have it, he ended up in the emergency 2 days later when it got to bad to bear, which resulted in it being removed the next day after spending the night in the hospital on IV antibiotics. I had NO idea how huge the surgical procedure would be, but they ended up having to put him to sleep, then slicing a piece out, removing the entire lump, including the casing and roots kind of thing around it that were holding into his back. It left a gaping hole, 2 cms deep and about 3.5cm long. They weren't able to stitch it closed as it had developed an abscess with the infection, meaning it has to be packed with surgical swabbing every day for the first week, then every second day afterwards for a few weeks. Wowsers. Literally has to heal from the inside, out.

I would like to say here, this was all at NO COST to our family. For the surgery, the overnight stay, the medication and the follow up home visits. I feel blessed every single day to be an Australian and to have the amaaaazing health care we do. Thank goodness it went through emergency and we didn't have to wait! 

P&C Day

Today was national P&C day in Australia. I have been a member of our school P&C for the last 4 or so years and have seen some amazing efforts from parents in fundraising, organising events... doing so many things that the school takes for granted, including running the canteen, who employ me! They are the most incredible organisations within schools and it's wonderful to see them give so much. 

It was super lovely, as all members of this years P&C were invited to the school for morning tea and a chat in the staff room. There was some delicious brownie slices and coffee (or hot chocolate in my case) and as we walked through the school, each student had written a thank you note to the P&C for things we have done. My personal favourite was "Dear P&C, thank you for funding Mathletics for our school, even though most days I hate it." Solid gold.

Madeline and her classmates wrote sweet things and I and the other members all felt very appreciated. Thank goodness for the P&C.

 

Election time in Australia

This Saturday, all Australian citizens have the opportunity to vote in our federal election. I love that in our country, voting is compulsory. No one can complain about who got in and say it was rigged or unfair as we all have to decide for ourselves who we want to get in.

I am at the point where I have to wonder if there is even a good option, but as we all learned in high school by reading and watching Looking for Alibrandi, in this country we vote not to get the best party in cause there's no such thing, but we vote to keep the worst party out. So that's what I did, when I lodged my postal vote (organised as I thought we might be moving by now) I voted for what was important to me. To me. 

I have to admit though, this particular election has really done my head in. I am absolutely gobsmacked at the absolute slander going on between the parties. I am so sick of hearing their ads everywhere I go telling me why their opposition is terrible, terrible things they supposedly did and why I shouldn't vote for them. I am well and truly over it. I legitimately only want to vote for anyone who I haven't seen slanderous items from. I'm pretty sure that only leaves me with the Legalise Marijuana party though and... yeah nah.

What I really want to see is what they are doing to make the world a better place. I don't care about your opposition, I want to hear about you! Promote what you love, instead of bashing what you hate! That's the way to my heart! I want to vote for the party with the best manners.

I also perish to think how many millions of dollars are wasted on flyers and posted letters to homes. I  received 7 just today, 4 via paid post and the others shoved in my mailbox. Who pays for that? I have already seen all of this info on the tv, the internet, on the radio, on signs... Stop wasting money!! For goodness sake.

In summary, I hate election time and cannot wait for this to be over. 

Toilet training done right!

This little dude has finally mastered the toilet! Woohoo! No more nappies! I can't even tell you how happy I am. Thankfully my covid experience experience was very mild and I was not bed ridden, or even really sick at all, so on day 2, when I accepted I was home for at least a week, I decided I wasn't wasting the time and took the nappies away. Undies only. Honestly, the best possible time to toilet train is when you literally cannot leave the house.

Next step was making this chart (cause if Bluey isn't encouragement enough, what is? haha) with stickers, giving Alex a Kinder Surprise egg for poops 1, 5, 10 and 15 - then the Bluey garbage truck for poop 20. He was much more interested after that.

It was not easy - and it was not quick. We had poop after poop after poop in his little undies. Nearly every time, it would be about 5 minutes after I asked him if he needed to poop. It was so, so frustrating. But, eventually, after days of that, all of a sudden one morning, he called out to tell me he'd pooped! In the toilet, thank heavens.

We still had a few accidents after that, but thank goodness we got there eventually. We've been here and there since with no nappy on (although when he went over to Aunty's house midweek and had to go into the city with her and for church today, we used a pullup. I'm all about the just in case!) and it's all going well. He takes himself to the toilet regularly for poos and wees and I am so happy! Toilet training in this house is done, for good yo!

Look at that face! He is so proud of himself! That garbage truck was worth every cent! Yay for Alex!

Gratitude: a primary lesson

Its's my turn to teach primary this week and my topic is:

I can be grateful for what the Lord has given me

When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, what we would refer to as the middle of nowhere (helps that we are in Australia and I could explain it was basically the same as wandering around in the desert, cause we have plenty of that!), it was over the space of 40 years! That’s longer than I have even been alive!! It’s a really long time. During this time they became sad and upset, complaining because they remembered the good food the Lord had provided them when they used to live in Egypt. They started to complain, even though the lord had GIVEN them food, it wasn’t what they wanted. (Numbers 11:4-9) 

How often do we look at what we have and are not happy with it?

Going around the room. If you could have anything you want. What would it be?

Oh my goodness the answers here. A Mustang, a Lamborgini, a comfortable pair of shoes, children who listen... 

Now. How many of these things couldn’t we live without? What is really important? Let’s focus instead on what we are grateful for! 

Watch gratitude video. (This cracked Doug up when I was preparing this lesson and one of the ladies says she is grateful for thrift shops and garage sales. Me in a nutshell)

 

Go and write on your paper 5 things you are grateful for. We are happy to help those of you who need help! When you’re done you can come and sit down again. 

Your list is 5 things you can tell Heavenly Father you are grateful for this week. Each day when you have prayed and thanked him, you can tick off the day! 

With our pianists help, I’d love to sing a song for you. “Count your many blessings.” I have so many blessings in my life and one of them is being a primary leader. 

I’m grateful for all of you! So here’s something to show you! (I'll be getting up early Sunday morning to make cookies.)

Chocolate chip peanut butter muffins

I am a member of a few excellent Facebook recipe groups and I am the worst for screenshotting recipes and/or saving them to make later. This one was a "make straight away" recipe though and everyone loved them! I know peanut allergies are a very real and scary thing as we have a lot of friends with them, so I thank my lucky stars each and every day that no one in our house has any allergies.

Chocolate chip peanut butter muffins

courtesy of  The View from Great Island

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups plain flour

1 1/4 cup mini choc chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160C and line 24 muffin cups with liners

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, peanut butter, brown sugar and eggs until smooth. 

3. Add the milk and the vanilla essence and whisk together.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together.

5. Finally fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Divide the batter evenly between the cups.

7. Bake for about 25 minutes, until puffed up and starting to turn golden brown on top. 

Chocolate mug cake

This old friend has gotten an absolute workout while we have been in isolation. We have been craving sweet treats and had to go with whatever we had in the house... until a friend dropped off icecream and boom. It was mug cake up in here, all day, every day!

It's as easy as... 1

2...

and 3 minutes in the microwave.

It's that easy!

Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients

4 tablespoons SR flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

A small splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug 

(Use a bowl! The mug will not be big enough. Take it from me. I have made this cake enough times to know.)

Method

Add all ingredients to mug and mix well

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for three minutes at 1000 watts.

Serve and add icecream or fresh cream.

Gardening

What do you do while you're in isolation? The to-do list of course! There are a few things that need doing in the garden before we can sell the house, which I had mapped out in my head already - so I got to work on them.

Here's how this side used to look, we've cleared the rocks and planted agapanthus in their place. The geraniums were pulled out and potted and eventually removed. The poinsettias were swapped into the front garden at Doug's mums house and the red leaved plants moved this week. 

There was some of the strawberry beds that didn't have any strawberries left in them, so I did a pull apart and re-position of all of them... they are now all full and even. After all the other plants were moved, these beautiful trailing leaves all look lovely, moving through the bed.

The back fence garden bed has been empty since we removed the fountain, so I stole these red leaved plants that have been growing in the side bed since we bought the house and replanted them in the sun, where I am hoping they will flourish!

They have wilted since, but I am very much hoping they will take and start to stand up tall again soon.

That's how the back fence used to look!

This plant in the large pot used to be in Doug's mums garden - and although she was not a gardener, since I moved something else into it's place and brought it home, it has flourished and bloomed... and it's a piece of her that I want to keep. Everything I want to take with us, is now in a pot. 

 

The grass has finally grown in well and looks lovely as you can see in the background here. Garden, sorted!