Check this - a calmer family

I've been following this blog Noble Mother for some time now on my reader and there's always something to inspire and refocus as a parent. The current series is called '10 days to a calmer family' is full of great tips such as the following random snippets:


I feel it coming on – it’s in the air of our home when our little ones need more rest, more down time, more slowness.   Like a physical fever, they need me to be close, to stop the busyness of the household, to provide more snuggles.

So often we over-schedule our children so that we don’t have to “entertain” them at home or to prevent them from becoming bored or because “it will build their self-esteem,” or because they begged and begged and in the back of your mind you worry that if you don’t start them in ballet by age 3, they won’t be as good as the other ballerinas.
Step 3 involves pulling your child close – both physically and emotionally.  This can be a challenge if your child has been throwing you for some big emotional loops lately.  The last thing you want to do is pull them towards you.  It’s during these difficult times that they need you the most.  Your willful child is the one you hold at a distance instinctively.  We pull in those easy to snuggle, those cooperative children.  I’m encouraging you to start the soul fever healing and stretch yourself by staying close to that fevered child.

And my favourite one:
Our conflict, our challenge isn’t to convince ourselves that dishes and laundry are amazing.  It is to acknowledge that as mothers to young children we are investing time into being present to these little ones as their spiritual mentors.  It is our love and guidance that makes all the difference in these early years to their own development of who they will become.  Being committed to the work of mothering is to be committed to your own inner work.  Your child can pick up on your unrest, your dissatisfaction, your resentment of mothering.

So head on over to Noble Mother and read the whole thing for yourself. 

Hmmm, salad or cake?

I know y'all will absolutely hate me for this post, but I honestly put this out with good intent.
Okay, so I have a daughter who is addicted to salad, and can live on it. I also have a son who could live on cake and lollies and would be right at home in Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory.
How does one raise two entirely different taste buds? I'm sure many parents would identify with this.
I'm big on health, if u haven't already noticed, i read labels all the time. I censor everything that comes in the door. Basically, i try to make sure that if i don't want the kids to eat it, its simply NOT available at home. Generally, you won't find much in this house made of white flour, preservative and food coloring.
Personally, I absolutely LOVE fruits and green veges, and crave them, and gag on overly sweet things. Hubby on the other hand craves the sweets and has a very glum look on his face when presented with the 'must eat veges'. So what's the effect on the kiddos? Genetically, I believe they've received different tendencies towards foods. That really can't be helped. But as for training, I think exposure and conditioning have had some impact. They both eat what we eat at meal times, they both love all fruits and enjoy them, and they both eat most vegetables. So the bottom line is - even if your kids are born with 'chocolate genes', what we DO (not say) and eat plays a big part, and limiting choices can be quite helpful.

Around the house these days

 - when nobody else will do it, just get on with it.... and don't mess with a chainsaw wielding mama!
-Danny's room in a rare state of orderliness, a virtue that is SO HARD to practice, and makes me the resident dragon!
- Amy's room contains all the kids books. Hmmm we love our books.... will post more later on some favourites.
-Amy having visitors. Not as peaceful as it looks in 2D.

DIY toothpaste

This is taking DIY to a new extreme but bear with me. What do you do with a kid who still loves the taste of toothpaste and would happily snack on it, can't quite rinse and spit after brushing, and knowing that phosphates and fluoride in toothpaste can be quite harmful when ingested? And said child has been known to squirt out most of a tube in one 'experiment' or take it into the bathtub, (mummy, the toothpaste has bubbles coming out, doesn't work anymore:(
Make your own!
Active ingredient is baking soda and a little salt. Add enough glycerin to make a paste, and then flavouring of choice. I used spearmint essential oil the first time and strawberry essence the next. A combination would probably be best. Experiment!

Life's a game, just play along

As part of a montessori activity we did a while back with Amy, she got to identify the right terms for the male and female of a few common animals. For example lion, lioness and cub. So at the moment, she's going through this phase where she calls family members animal names, and of course she's the baby of the animal. After reading Bambi the other day, she announced that she's now baby fawn, so mama doe and daddy buck MUST call her baby fawn for the rest of the day. No I'm not Amy, I'm Baby Fawn. So we try hard to remember our new titles..... Now along comes my dad, and he's greeted with a very enthusiastic, 'hello Baba dog!' . His face darkens a little and he ignores the comment. Then he tells me, 'you better tell her its not right to talk like this.'
Then she calls out to her dad, 'Come in daddy pig, mama sow says its time for dinner!'. Hmmm. Daddy pig not liking this one.
So tonight as Mama Dragon put Baby Dragon to bed, she thought about 'correcting' Baby Dragon, but then thought, nahh, this is tooo much fun!!! The cross-cultural linguistic mish mash in the face of very innocent learning was just too hilarious to put a stop to. what say you?

The last minute party

This was one crazy party, slapped together at the last minute. Danny's 6th birthday. The last time he had a party was when he turned one. Meantime Amy scored a few decent parties in Queensland, and every year for the last 4 years almost, we've been on the move in January. So he's now old enough to know whats going on, that he's been missing something. So this year, i had to MAKE this happen even tho it was 3 days after moving in etc etc. And given his impressive list of food allergies, having it out would be more trouble than its worth. So everything homemade. Theme - rainbows....simple enough. Lots of little friends came, had a ball together, and at the end of the day, when Daddy asked him what he liked best about the day, the immediate reply was, 'having all my friends here'. So a big thank you to the friends who came:)

Finally moved in

So we've finally just moved in to our new home! Its been a week, a very busy week of moving in, cleaning, sorting and having a party for a certain 6 yr old. Insane, i tell ya! Wasn't planned that way, but how many things ever really go according to plan?
So here you have it, the before pics of the kitchen below, and what it looks like now. What we did:
- removed two walls to make a larger living space - open plan kitchen/dining/living
-new kitchen
-polished the floors in entire house. We were really lucky to have uncovered good quality baltic pine which doesn't creak and groan, and it came up A TREAT after polishing. I'm so in love with the floors, so child friendly (slightly more give when little bones come crashing down...frequently) and doesn't show dirt!!!
-painted just about everything - i wasn't allowed to do much myself but snuck in a few bits - love it.
-removed everything in the laundry, tiled it and put in new tub.
All the above in two months, with a very reasonable cost, and very pleased with outcome.
Best part is the yard, as you can see, some individuals seem to think its a driving range, while others are happy to chill in the hammock and keep out of mummy's way....
Still lots to do around the place, but hey, gotta have something to keep me outta trouble.

New beginings

Danny starts new school with friend Adora. So far so good. Even better as its summer holidays now.
New baby in the family - Dad's cousin. The one on the right is the mother.
Picnic for Ethan's birthday (1 yo) at the best picnic spot ever.

The last two months...

Finally bought a house! These pics are from October 09. Its been a long process of getting a lot of things sorted out. Right now, we are in the final stages of renovation (i hope) and should move in with in the next fortnight. Will put up some before and after pics.
We've been looking for a house since we moved back to Adelaide in Jan 09 while staying at my parents. Saw many, like few, and basically things just didn't fall into place. One day, i take the kids for a walk to our nearby park, and see this house for sale. I also notice the address - No. 9, my fave no. Well 2 weeks later, we'd bought the house...and then the journey began.
It all sounded too good to be true, a house right on a park with a playground, 5 mins walk to parents, and even less to my uncles' and a good friend who lives right across the park!! Plus, our first house in Australia was not far from this park and i used to jog there while a student...... Just perfect. Until I walked in the door.
Initially, all i saw was yucky brown. EVERYWHERE. you know the 1960's mish mash of 10 completely unmatched shades of brown and cream and everything in between.
Anyway, all that brown is a thing of the past, as my awesome uncle 'Harry' pitched in to help with the renovations, and we gutted the place. Carpets ripped out, layers of vinyl and chipboard flooring, walls removed, old kitchen out, many hours of muscle and sweat later and its slowly looking like something half decent. I secretly LOVE all the ripping out DIY stuff. Especially when its a getaway from kids;)
More pics coming after we move in.

Teacher Appreciation event

Our local Baha'i community(Holdfast Bay, Adelaide) joined others around Australia on 30th October in celebrating World Teacher's Day. As Baha'is, we take the role of teacher's in society pretty seriously, and as such try to demonstrate the appreciation of the amazing and often unseen work that teachers do by hosting some form of event or gifts for teachers. This year, we decided to offer morning tea to a primary school and kindergarten at the schools. So we all made finger food - cupcakes, fruit platters, etc, and also a thank you fridge magnet pictured above for each staff member. The fridge magnets are available from 'Hidden Words bookshop, Melbourne.
I went to the kindergarten event and the teachers were so appreciative, saying that no one has ever done anything like this for them!