A New Quilt for our New Home

We are having a frustrating time at the moment with the architects. We gave our brief - one of the important things was that we wanted two living areas and 5 bedrooms (one of which had to be downstairs). They came back with a plan showing only one living area, and the 5th bedroom downstairs was to be converted into a living room when needed. Ummmm.... that wasn't what we asked for. So we've been back and forward about 3 times now and they still can't get it right and it's getting frustrating.

But anyway, I am loving pinterest these days. I might not have had it for my wedding, but I do have it for the new house, and I'm pinning like crazy to find the right interior decorating colours and plans.
I have just about got Alice's room sorted out. This pin is my inspiration for colours and design:

Source: indulgy.com via Rachel on Pinterest

And then I found this scrumptious quilt. I found it one day by reading through some of my blogroll and this lady happened to be doing a giveaway. But I couldn't wait for that - and I seldom win anything anyway. So I just went ahead and ordered the fat quarter pack. I've already started it and am so enjoying it. I have rather a heavy-going writing project underway at the moment, and this is my relief from that.

You can view the quilt and the tutorial at: Lovely Little Handmades. She has links to her etsy shop for the fabric.

Isn't it just the sweetest thing?

I can't tell you how excited I was to get it in the mail.

  

How could you not be happy when working with such sweetness. I am really loving making this - I think it will be my most favourite quilt - just because the fabric is so lovely and it is so quick to sew together and each square is different, so plenty of variety. But I just love the prints. There's something very Milly-Molly-Mandyish about it. Perfect for my wee girl.

I'm Not Telling the Kids

This week, Meredith came home from school and told me a boy had coughed on her.
It gave me a bit of a wakeup call, because in the warmth and Vitamin D-saturated summer weather, you forget that winter is just around the corner waiting to pounce on you with all those nasty germs.

So, this week I am putting my secret plan into place. I've been thinking about doing this ever since I got the real, proper influenza last year for the first time in my life.
I'm off to the doctor's on the first of March for my 'flu vaccine (not taking any chances), and this week I am going sugar-free in all the cooking and baking, and not telling the kids!

I bought Dr. Libby Weaver's book, Real Food Chef recently, and am trying out a few of her recipes on the children in their lunch boxes.

I love Dr. Libby's books. Rob's cousin put me onto her at Christmas time when we were at the beach, and I downloaded one of her books onto kindle. She just has this way of explaining the human body and it's functions in a really easy, understandable way. You don't need a medical degree to get what she is saying.

A couple of years ago I went sugar-free for 3 months. It was absolute torture for the first three days. Constant headaches and lethargy, but once I pushed through that I felt amazing, and I didn't get sick. My kids had awful coughs and viruses and I didn't get any of it - and usually I'm the first to go down with it. I've been wanting to do it again - but it's not easy when everyone else is eating regular food and you are not, so I'm putting the whole family onto it and hopefully they won't even know. School lunches are the hardest part of this as I usually put a cookie or a slice of cake in with their sandwiches and fruit, but Libby Weaver even has recipes for the sweet stuff.

I'm a little bit limited with her recipes, because she uses a lot of nuts, and Alice's kindy have a no-nut policy, but these chocolate truffles are nut-fee and look delicious and easy to make, so will give them a go.
She also has recipes for mock-tails, which I love and are great for us non-alcoholic drinkers.

So wish me luck! This is my campaign against the fast-encroaching winter ills.

Feeling a Bit Grumpy Today

Today it is 13 years since my first child was born. 13 years since I first experienced childbirth, and it was a rough one - Hugh was born into the world with much travail, but God sure has blessed us with him - he is amazing. I often feel humbled that God gave him to us because he is such a good kid. Sure, he has the occasional issue, but he is so easy to parent and gives us more joy than pain, and we are looking forward to celebrating with him, later today.

But today has been a mixed bag of negative things to deal with, birthday aside.
I've had to deal with an issue at school involving Theodore. Spoke with the principal about it, but still not 100% happy with the outcome from that. So will be keeping an eye closely on it. I guess sometimes we have to be advocates for our children, and I might look quiet and seem quiet, but I am not really. As one of my dear friends said to me lately, I am a 'closet rebel'. LOL. And my parents would probably agree to that. So look out!

The other thing that happened was that Cricket - our 10 year old dog - has arthritis and ran out of his medicine yesterday, so I rang to order some more, but nobody got back to me about it, so I called in today to the vet clinic and they had completely forgotten about it, and the vet was away today - so felt a bit discouraged at that too - probably coming on top of the other thing with the school.

Then I come home and log onto facebook, and honestly, I'm getting fed up (and almost at the point of wanting to bite back) with friends posting/sharing from other sites that are blatently offensive to my beliefs and values. Traditionally, christians are 'supposed' to turn the other cheek, but I'm getting annoyed, because if we challenge them on their beliefs, all hell is let loose.

I am not one to do that, to be honest. I would rather shrug it off or just ignore it, and I do in the main, but there is so much out there at the moment poking fun at those of us who believe in God. Just starting to get a wee bit nettled about that. Just saying. Whether these people think we are stupid or not, I don't post stuff telling the world I think they are stupid. The intolerance these days towards christians is incredible, not surprising given the state of the world, but still - incredible. If my friends think I'm being brainwashed then engage me in conversation about it - I might think they are being brainwashed too. It goes both ways doesn't it.

So, yeah, feeling a bit on the offensive today.

It Creeps Up On You

This week I have had a few reminders that I am no longer in the Springtime of my life. The funny thing is that my mind hasn't quite caught up, so when I had to visit the Physio this week for knee trouble it began to dawn on me that I'm probably classified as middle-aged now! When did that happen! It's kind of a shock!

This is how I think of myself in my mind.... that magical age of 17.

 

But my knees have developed this strange crunching sound. The doctor told me that it's a result of bearing children. My hips are realigning themselves after 4 years of no pregnancies and so my knees have to realign at the same time and they haven't taken too kindly to it... so I'm on 3 times a day exercises to strengthen the muscles to retrain my knees.

And then today I go to the optometrist to get my eyes looked at, seeing as I haven't been in over 8 years, and my husband was complaining that the frames on my glasses are way out of date - like maybe 20 years out of date. So just for that he now has to pay for Gucci Frames!! Haha - I'm so excited to get them. I figured that one pair of frames in 20 years is not such a financial hardship, so I could treat myself with a LABEL. But the one consolation of having to go to the optometrist is that I am told I have very boring eyes and perfect eyesight! And I only need the glasses for eyestrain brought on by liking the computer and reading books too much.

And then - after building up my ego - he tells me to be sure to not leave another checkup for another 8 years, as my eyesight will probably start to go downhill in about 5 years. 

How's that for the pill in all the jam?