If only I was 2 again!

Do you ever wonder why children refuse to sleep? I do, constantly! I have just spent the last 2 hours, that's right from 7.50pm to 9.50pm trying to get Miss Michaela to stay in her bed and GO TO SLEEP! Okay in her defence we were out for lunch and didn't get home till after 3 which meant she had a late nap, than Miss Ashley was being a drama queen so I spent a great deal of time trying to defuse that, as well as Baby Eli trying to have a feed and to top it all off Dad wasn't here to back me up! You see Michaela is not quite 2, she'll be 2 next month and we've only just moved her into a big bed about a month ago, so she is still enjoying the new found freedom and has gone from a little girl that just went straight to sleep (after months of training!) to someone who fights it like the plague! And this is the bit I don't understand - what I wouldn't give for a daytime nap, no one would have to ask me twice, I'd be out like a light. And going to bed at 7.30, yes please. Why is it that when your a baby or a little person all people want you to do is go to sleep, if you sleep a lot everyone is happy. The problem is you don't appreciate it, you fight it, you kick, scream, whinge, argue, need to get a drink, need to go to the toilet, not to mention the endless "but I forgot to say goodnight". Is sleeping really that bad? the answer is no! Sleep is blissful, it's not until your a parent that you understand the true joy of sleep. It's just one of those things that until you've had it taken away from you, you just don't appreciate it. So that is why I wish I could go back to being 2, just for a couple of days. Just long enough to catch up on about 11 years off lost sleep, off being up throughout the night, of numerous night time feeds,of have to get up early and of going to bed late just so I can have some time to myself!

On another note I've been thinking about what to do with this cupboard door.

Recently we had been thinking of moving house, (our house is way to small) but since we've been here about 4 1/2 years I've been marking the kids heights on the inside of the pantry door. I love it, and when we talked about moving I started wondering what would happen to my door. I mean I guess I can't rip it off and take it with me! So after thinking about it for a few days I have thought of a little project I could do using the door and markings. Not sure how it will turn out but I'll keep you updated. I guess I'll have to do it sooner than later as I meant to be revamping the kitchen over the next few weeks which means the doors will have to go!

And another project that I'm currently working on, I think I actually started this in March it was a doona and wall hanging for Eli, Oops! Yet another UFO (unfinished project)


The wall hanging (I haven't put it up yet, will have to wait till I rearrange rooms - again!)



His buttons that Miss Michaela choose and had to help sew on.

Eli's doona (yes it is very scrunched but it just came out of the dryer and I couldn't be bothered ironing it before I took a photo!)
The back of his doona, Yes I love Mickey!!!!!

So that's me for tonight, hopefully I can do another post tomorrow as I had intended to do one every couple of days and tonight's was nothing like I had in mind, it just came from me having to vent my frustration - argh, much better. Thanks, Good night!

Where does the time go?

So my little baby boy is now in a cot, how did this happen? I still remember thinking how long this pregnancy is, how it seems to last
F O R E V E R and all of the sudden he is 11 weeks old and can't fit in the bassinet any more! Why is that when your pregnant time seems to go so slowly? I do have rather uncomfortable pregnancies, getting extremely large, having problems holding my pelvis together, having to use crutches, not being able to stand, sit or lie down. Add to that the fact that only one of my beautiful children has been under 4.5kg and the last 2 over 5.3kg, so you can see pregnancy isn't easy for me, maybe this is the reason it seems to last so long. So why as soon as my babies are born does time need to speed up? I mean really after going through all that can't they just stay smallish for a little while? Why do they feel the need to grow up so fast? I have been telling the older kids for years to stop growing, but they refuse to listen to me! They would laugh off my silly games of not letting them have their next birthday or mixing them up a magical potion that stops them from ever growing up. That was until Michaela came along, all of the sudden the older 3 children have noticed how fast she has grown up, how quickly she has gone from being a baby to an independent, chatty if not extremely bossy little girl! Now with Eli they think time is going even quicker, he was smiling and 'talking' at 4 weeks old. He was trying to roll over when he was still in the hospital, he has been holding his head up and looking around, following everyone and acknowledging all of our voices since he was only a few days old. This isn't fair, I want my baby to be a baby for as long as possible. It seems as though it wasn't that long ago that Curtis was a baby and now he is in year 5 and almost 11! Is time really going faster? When I was a kid, a year seemed to go on forever, it was ages between birthdays, school holidays seemed to last for ages and now it feels as though it comes around faster all the time! Why is this? Is it just that I'm getting older and have been around a bit longer? Or is it that I try to cram so much in, try to do to much, over schedule and over commit myself that I don't have time to enjoy everyday? Maybe it's a bit of both. Maybe as you get older time does seem to go faster, I know my grandmother in law tells me that all the time. Maybe I need to slow done a little, enjoy every day, not get to hung up on what I still need to do and appreciate what I did get done, even if that is only that I got up, got dressed and survived the day with all children still in tact! I have always enjoyed the kids, I love spending time with them, playing silly games, reading countless books, doing craft, cooking, and having deep and meaningful discussions with a 6 year old, but I really think I need to appreciate it a little more because they grow up way to fast!

Miss M, out to the world in her "Big Girl Bed"

On a side note I have been doing a bit (or trying to) on my A to Z album, here is a few more layouts. I have done others as well but Blogger won't let me upload any more photos so I'll post them on another day.

E is for Eli, self explanatory!

D is for Dress ups, we love dressing up and costumes, maybe even more than the kids!

C is for Curtis, another self explanatory one.

A is for Ashley.

Well I'm off to try and get another layout done before I go to bed, hopefully you've had a good week and enjoy your weekend!

P.S please feel free to comment so I can see if anyone actually reads this..................

Housework...........Blergh!

Okay so I know most people don't like housework, I know there is those strange few that do and I really wish I was one of them but unfortunately I'm not. I would much rather be playing with kids, doing some craft or spending time with friends, but with 5 children housework is inevitable. Yesterday as I stood looking at all the washing I was wondering if anyone else has the same issues as me or if I'm just a terrible housewife and suck at looking after the house? ( after a bit of thinking I decided it was a bit of both.) You see whenever I go to visit friends, including friends with children (i.e the bulk of my friends) their houses are always clean, tidy, organised. No mount washmore covering the lounge. My place, not the case. There is ALWAYS dishes in the sink, even if I only cleaned the kitchen 2 minutes ago, There is ALWAYS books on the floor, as Miss M insists on reading an endless mountain of books everyday. More often than not there will be school bags, homework, readers, library books, notes, instruments or a soccor ball wherever there was a clean table or bench to put it on as starving children rush in after a long, hard, food deprived day at school. This is all on top of the mountain of washing covering the lounge.

On the upside the washing (yes washing is what annoys me the most, no idea why!) was all clean, the kids are all well feed, well loved and well cared for. They are happy, healthy, beautiful children that for the most part are really good and very helpful. So I figure that as my husband works long hours, ( I do realise that many parents are single parents and manage to do everything by themselves, all the time and my hat goes off to them!) and I'm the one looking after all the kids, the house, the cooking and after school activities as well as trying to still hang on to *me*, that a pile of CLEAN washing, some books, bags and toys lying around the house isn't the end of the world. It's a lived in house! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it anyway.

On another note I just wanted to share how wonderful my 8 year old Miss A is. Yesterday I was having a difficult day, little miss M was being a grump and Mr E hadn't been sleeping or feeding very well since he had his 8 week old injections on Friday, needless to say I wasn't getting anything done. After having mr E awake for 4 hours ( not like him at all) and finally trying to put him back to bed I was attempting to get dinner started. Miss M decided that that was the time to start throwing a tantrum and screaming at the top of her lungs that she needed to cook, I tried letting her do her own *cooking* as I was cutting up Lamb and she couldn't help with that. Nope that wasn't good enough, she had to do the same as me, she let me know this rather loudly. As anyone who knows miss M would know she only has 2 volumes, loud and really really loud! Hence she woke up her brother. After coming out from resettling him I discovered that miss A had taken Miss M off to get her shoes and beanie on and was taking her outside to play "so Mum can get dinner ready without your help." As miss A put it. She than brought in the washing before going back out to finish pushing Miss M around on her scooter. So okay it was only about 20 minutes or so, but I was so proud of her for not only helping me out and playing so beautifully with her little sister but also for doing it without being asked. For showing enough maturity to see what was going on around her and being able to realise that she was able to do something to help. And that makes me smile, to think that my little girl (who is growing up way to fast) is able to take control, she doesn't need to be asked to do things. That she is kind and thoughtful, and likes to help others. She is Awesome and I'm so proud of her - Which I did sit down and tell her last night.



Miss A entertaining Miss M the photo isn't the best as I took it through the glass doors not wanting to disturb the playing!



Miss A and a friend during their sleepover including Miss M in their games.

Don't get me wrong the boys help a lot too particularly with cooking, and I'm really proud of all of them, I just wanted to share how proud I was and how the smallest things can put everything else (including the HUGE) pile of washing into perspective!

Have a great Day!

A few pics!

So a few things that I have been trying to get done over the last few days. Number 1: Finishing off the kitchen floor. We used to have a horrible brown and orange lino on the floor, we FINALLY got rid of it and last week we put down the new tiles, followed by the grout and I finally finished the sealer the night before last! Floor - check!

I've had these 2 pairs of pants out for a couple of weeks to turn into bags, unfortunately they are both still sitting there. My excuse is that my sewing machine has decided it doesn't want to work but in reality I guess I could have still cut them out and had them ready to go. Maybe next week?

Finishing off some more felt monsters. A few weeks ago at BWG (Brindabella women's group) I made a felt monster for the kids (super easy) since then we have had to make a few more, the kids are making their own as well. The blue one is Master K's. Monsters - Check!


A bit of experimenting with Flock, it's not really my thing, flowers and butterflies! So I'm out of my comfort zone a bit. First a bright card- not sure if I'm happy with it or not.



And then a layout which is still a work in progress. Flock 1/2 Check

Anyway at least Ive done a few things in between watching dvd's, playing games and doing endless amounts of washing! How are your holidays?