First Sewing Lesson

Yesterday I undertook my first sewing lesson - as the teacher.  Arrggghhh, who would have thought that I'd be teaching someone else to sew. (I tend to see myself as a little unconventional when I sew - I don't really follow instructions and tend to make things up or modify things a bit) Anyway back to the story, it was for my oldest nephew.  He was stitching his name on some heshon with wool when I was visiting the other day and was a little concerned that the back wasn't very neat.  So I suggested sewing a back on it to cover it up.  And of course this meant I had a job of helping him to do it.  In fact - teaching him to do it himself.  During the discussion, it ended up becoming a wall hanging and needing tabs to hang etc.  The project just kept growing.  Our Australia Day Holiday was the perfect time to get together and do some sewing.

I think the cutting and ironing part was a bit boring - boys really don't find these things interesting or important so focus wasn't very high at this point.

Boys just want to get the machine going - you can see how focused he is now!! He did a great job - even learned how to go slow. His stitching was really straight and looked great. I was super impressed by how he remembered things like when to reverse and holding threats when you start etc. Particularly because these are things I still forget to do.

  

I think he is happy with the finished project

Wonder what we might make together next??

With the Big Boys

Yesterday Eli joined us for our outside time.
It was a beautiful sunny day and there weren't any biting bugs out yet.
He seemed to really enjoy it, watching the sun through the trees.

He was visited by his brothers often.

And then they decided to join him on the rug.
Which he also didn't mind!

Pants, toes and rolls

Well, I have been going to make Eli a pair of Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Pants from her book Handmade Beginnings for almost the last three months (yes, he is nearly 3 months old already). I was inspired to actually get to the machine and do it this week by SouleMama's warm pants. So during the boys quiet time yesterday I finally got to it.


How cute are those toes.

I love the different yoke on the back.

The inside - yes they are reversible

Look how big my little baby boy is getting.

You can see a bunch of very cute rolls up his arms. Well as cute as they are they do create some sadness. Due to the rolls up his legs, these pants don't fit when he is wearing a cloth nappy. I made the 3 months size, thinking it would be ok for a while but it isn't. NOoooo! And that was the last of my owl fabric so I can't just whip up another pair in the next size.
So my answer to this problem - put him in them every time we go out for the next month or so (we use 'plastic' nappies when we are out). I am going to do my best to wear them out. So if you see us out and about in the next month - expect to see these pants!

For those of you who are wondering, the rug is a special present, made by my mother-in-law for my 21st birthday so I don't know what the pattern is - but I could find out for you if you are interested. Just ask!

Present from Gran & Grandad

Gran and Grandad have recently been on holidays in Utah to visit our cousins and uncle and aunt.
Gran loves to buy things for us when she goes on holidays and this time she bought us this really cool parachute.

We have played with it inside
running under it and hiding, standing on it while daddy pulls it and we fall over and so much more.

We also play with it outside
on the trampoline, a roof for our cubby and once again so much more.

Thanks so much Gran (& Grandad), as you can see, we love it very much.

Weekend Gardening

For the first time in a very long time we had a weekend without rain - it seems weird to be excited about this because this time last year we were in drought and now we are looking for a few days without rain. Anyway we made the most of this fine sunny weekend with some much needed gardening/pruning. Now I need to tell you something about our understanding of the word pruning. Pruning means we need to go and get the chainsaw and the backhoe from the shed. So look out trees!!

We had a lovely time all helping together.

I guess we will need to get another pair of these before too long.

Flood reflections

I have been thinking about what to blog for a few days now and have been a little unsure what I should or could share. 

• I could show you more photos of our paddocks under water but I've already shown you that,
• I could show you more photos of our boys playing in the mud and water - but I've already shown you that - there has been soooo much of this happening
• I could show you more photos of the food coming from the kitchen - but I've already shown you that
• I could show you more photos of the garden - but I've shown you that (old photos, I know, but I'm not sure you want to see it every week)

It may sound a little weird but life here hasn't actually changed that much for us in the last week or so.  We still have lots of water over our farm, nothing in houses or sheds but many of our crops have been covered.  We had a little warning this lot of water was coming so the cupboards, fridges and freezers were all stocked and the generator was on stand-by for power outages.  We knew that our roads would be cut for at least a week. 

So it is a little hard to imagine what life is like for people whose house is being filled with water or in some cases completely floated away.  People who have lost family and friends and those who are waiting looking for missing people.  All I can do from here is pray.

I am feeling somewhat removed from the whole situation.  Even here on our own farm, my responsibility of mothering three young boys remains constant and my priority and prevents me from getting out and helping on the farm.  I was very thankful for my sister relieving me of my responsibility for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon so I could go and help start siphons and get my feet muddy!!

Anyway, whilst I was thinking about what to share with you last night, I looked out the window and saw this.

It helped remind me that there is some much good stuff happening out there, people opening up their houses to those who have lost theirs, people giving food to SES workers, people helping in evacuation centres and so much more that I don't know about.  So I hope that this helps brighten your day - whatever you may be dealing with.

Flooding Fun

As most of you know, Queensland has had some pretty serious flooding lately currently.  Dalby is one of the towns that has been declared a disaster area.  This is our closest town.  However, we have been really fortunate.  We haven't had any water in houses, only some of our crops went under for a day but most of it is still going ok.  The roads around have been cut and the power and phones do funny things so it can still be a little trying.  Thought I should show you what we got up to yesterday to help combat this.

So much fun to be had - even with a tinnie and an 18hp engine!!

In my Kitchen

I have been having fun in the kitchen lately - I was given Cyndi O'Meara's Changing Habits Changing Lives Cookbook for Christmas and have eaten something out of it every day since.  There are so many habits that we have in our society (relating to what we eat) that aren't necessarily the best for our health.  This book address some of these and talks about picking one habit a week and focusing on changing just that for the week.  It breaks it all down into do-able steps.  One of the biggest concepts in the book is the quality of the food, not the quantity.  So there is no calory counting, just checking the ingredients in the foods.  It's amazing what is in the food we think is good for us!!

Anyway the habit we are focusing on at the moment is breakfast.  We aren't eating bought cereals anymore.

We are eating lots of fresh fruit, amazing rice cereals that are most like rice puddings and fresh home made bread with lots of seeds in it and fresh homemade juice.  So far the kids have enjoyed the bircher with a twist the best but my favourite was the pinacolada rice cereal.  I must say all this is made so much easier with my Thermomix.  Oh I love my Thermomix!!

Imagination Play

Today during quiet time for Isaiah he asked me to play with him. After I did some jobs and he played on his own, we ended up playing farmers/shop keepers and shoppers. It was so much fun playing with all our wooden toys from Christmas. We had the farm yard where we grew the produce, the tractor took it to market, the crane unloaded the produce to the shop shelves and then we sold the produce the teddy. I love that it doesn't matter that the fruit it ten times bigger than the cows or twice as big as the tractor. Kids don't care at all.

The fruit and vegie shop in the middle, part of crane on the left, farm and tractor in the background

 

 

Our beautiful fruit, vegie and bread sets (from Woolworths) - comes complete with cutting board and wooden knife to 'cut' the produce up (it's held together with velcro)

Part of the farm yard set (an ALDI bargin)