I'm single parenting it for a week or so while the husband is away working out west. The thought of coping by myself with no support is always so stressful but the reality of it is always so much better than what I imagine. I am of course only day one into this temporary gig but it's going well so far.

3 kids are all asleep, all at the same time, I call that a success!

I have been super productive today. I've vacuumed,dusted, steam mopped, done all the washing and baked some school snacks for school lunches. Now Ive got all that out of the way today, tomorrow after the usual running around with ballet and appointments/ drop offs I'm planning on getting back into some sewing.

I have a few projects started but life has been a bit busy lately so finding time to finish things is tough. So tomorrow I'm hoping to get a top started and or made and have a go at some ruffle trousers for Moo.

Tomorrow is our busiest day of the week and with Andrew away it's going to be even harder. We start the day with ballet and then after school pickup it's swimming for the big girl and the big boy and then at 5pm it's time for soccer training which doesn't finish up till after 6pm so I'm thinking I might make use of the slow cooker tomorrow night.

If I can figure out how to load pictures from my iPad I'll share some from a great fundraising dinner we went to last week at Harrys school. Was a great night sans kids, such a rare thing for us.

Gotta run NCIS is on :)

Weekend nothingness

It's been a relatively boring weekend. Andrew has an assignment due by midnight tomorrow night so I've effectively being single parenting it so he can study uninterrupted!

Yesterday we did some painting.

I searched online and found free printable pictures of different things like dinosaurs for Harry and butterflies for Milla and then we made some paints from flour and water and food coloring and the kids spent hours outside painting.

They made a HUGE mess and a couple of their masterpieces were eaten by the dog but overall it was a brilliant choice of activity and much easier to clean up than the bought paints.

This morning I forgoed my sleep-in and took the kids to church.
It's a lovely little anglican church community attached to Harry's school that we began at last year and stopped when I fell pregnant and sick with Sofie, so it's been a while but its nice to get back into it and the kids get to go to creche and a version of Sunday school which they love so it was a nice way to spend our Sunday morning.

This afternoon we have no plans I'm making one of our favourite dinners that is almost always on the fortnightly meal planning rotation: the yummiest potato bake, steamed beans, baked brown rice and pork loin chops.

Hope you are having a super Sunday of your own xo

Liking/ Disliking

Disliking - 

Early soccer games on a Saturday morning, meaning no sleep in for me and a mad rush getting us all up, dressed and fed and on our way in time.

Rental inspections and all the cleaning and tidying that goes with preparing for it, although considering this is our first ever rental inspection in about 8 years of renting we have had a pretty good run of it.

That i can't seem to find Two Kisses for Maddy as an ebook available to buy in Australia. I spent an hour today trying to buy it and kept hitting brick walls with stores not selling to Aust.

Little bloody ants that have infested our kitchen bench tops. I will win this battle though.



Liking - 

Forgetting i registered for a maybelline baby lips freebie and it arriving in the mail at a perfect time when the cooler weather has kicked in and my lips are paying for it.

My pretty purple pedicured nails i got yesterday complete with foot massage and massage chair. Oh so relaxing.

Finally completing my shirt i have been making at sewing class and even more likeable is it's something i can be seen wearing :)

My new h20 steam mop, so easy to use.

This beautiful climate that is Townsville in winter. Coldish at night and beautiful and warm during the day. Bliss.

Coles kalamata olive sour dough batard, if you haven't tried it you really should its oh so good!

Damnyouautocorrect.com 
I have not laughed so hard in a long time. So funny, i highly reccomend.
Although a warning Don't view if you are easily offended by rudeness, or you have a weak bladder or a mouthful of drink ;)

Mummies Day

This was the hardest mothers day for me so far since mum died.

I'm not sure why now, 5 years since mum died.

Maybe because Dad has been in hospital recently and thats brought back the memories of mum being diagnosed but it was definately a teary/bittersweet day for me.

Sweet because of my beautiful little angels spoiling me with gifts they made/picked themselves, but bitter because mum isn't here to share it all with us.

And Harry's handmade gifts from school

Harry's interview the school did for all the mums

Being a mum is seriously the best thing i have ever and will ever do and while yes i agree you should appreciate and love your mum every day (which i did) i still think its nice to have a day just for mums. 

(Because i really, really enjoy the sleep in, and breakfast in bed and no poopy nappies for one whole day :)) 

Yummy in my tummy

Vegetable Pancakes (taste.com)

I decided a couple of months or so back that along with meal planning i was going to also give up on buying all the packaged food snacks and make everything from scratch.

I've tried meal planning before but never stuck at it for much longer than a pay period (fortnightly) but this time its going brilliantly. It saves money best of all and is much healthier and with the help of taste.com we are eating way yummier meals than before (And its not all mince haha)

Each fortnight i sit down and troll through all my saved recipes on taste and pick out some new and old favourites, work out what ingredients we don't have for the recipes and start the list.

Anyways yesterday was my day of school snack/work snack baking and i decided to try a new recipe for Veggie Pancakes and it was so good that i thought i'd share.
(None of them actually made it into the freezer to be used for school/work snacks so i'm going to have to make another batch.)

Vegetable Pancakes

Insanely good.

I didn't follow the recipe to a tee. I kinda chucked in what i had so some zucchini, carrot, light cheese, skim milk and some mushrooms cos i didn't have any corn on hand, pepper/salt and I doubled the milk amount instead of yoghurt only because i didn't have any and the baking powder really added to the making of the crispy outside but moist inside.

If you use oil to cook them in just use a little then pop on paper towel so the oil is sucked out and the crispness stays. Or you can do it with the spray oil so its healthier again. (i did a combo of both)

The kids even loved them which is saying something for mine who consider most green vegetables to be evil.

Sofie @ 6 Months

I looked at the date today and realised, my baby is now 6 months.

I'm sad and deliriously happy all in one. Sad that its all going too fast, but happy that i'm spending my days with this gorgeous little girl. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I've been a bit slack with the updates but i think thats just the life of the 3rd child. She is doing everything she should be doing and i have no concerns, although i'd like it if her sleep routine improved.

She likes to lull me into a false sense of security with sleeping through for a week or so and then wham we are back to feeding a couple times in the night.

I think she is ready to not be wrapped to be honest. She gets her arms out so easily now and stays asleep okay once i've got her down but i'm finding it hard to actually get her to go to sleep if she isn't wrapped. Have tried the one arm in and one arm out thing and that doesn't really work so i'm going to try cold turkey and see how that goes.

She is slowly starting on solids, she is the least interested of my 3 and i'm not pushing it, i have noticed the last few days she is getting more interested in it all but she much prefers chewing/sucking on crusts and bread etc than any of the pureed foods, so am hoping to do a combination of baby led weaning, once she is sitting up.

I have no weight stats but my nurse is coming Thursday so will get them then but she is becoming a little chunky thing so there is no concern.

I stopped breastfeeding about a month ago now and transitioned onto Bellamys Organic and she has really, really started to develop weight wise, she is getting little fat rolls and its super cute.

She laughs, she giggles, she poops and eats and sleeps. Pretty normal baby in my books.

All in all she is such a gorgeous little thing, happy and adjustable to different routines.

Its certainly been a wonderful 6 months, i'm still feeling the love for it all, the good and the bad :)

Cushy Cuhions

Our lounge needed a bit of an update, so on the weekend i grabbed some material from my stash and made a few cushions for it.

The sewing isn't perfect but if you don't closely inspect ;) i think they look fab (even if i do say so myself)

I did one side spotted minkee and the other side was with some floral fat quarters i found in my stash, the minkee, is such beautiful material, its a total shit to sew with but its so, so soft, i love it.

As a side note, you know how you rub your cheek on a babies head cos its so soft and lovely? 

Or maybe that is just my freaky behaviour?? hahaha but anyways Minkee reminds me of that softness, minus the baby.