Category Archives: Family

Finding their Sea Legs

That week between Christmas and New Year is a great one, time seems to slip away and one day melds into the next so you’re not quite sure what day it actually is. For the past few years we have spent that lovely week in Sydney visiting my parents, we invade their usually quiet house with noise and mess and chaos. To help try and let Nana have at least one hot cup of tea each day without being interrupted we try and take the kids out and about, explore Sydney, catch up with friends and exhaust the Muddy Tribe so they drop straight off to sleep at night.
 
One of their favourite activities is to go out on the harbour on Grandpa’s boat, if the weather is right we’ll throw them in for a swim (never ones to miss an opportunity when we’re on the coast). Slowly, slowly they’re finding their sea legs, learning how to balance as the boat moves and how to avoid feeling sea sick.
 
Their most exciting trips though are to watch the Family Fireworks on New Years Eve, we pack them up and head down to anchor off Clarks Point at Woolwich and try and keep them entertained until the fireworks start. It is a highlight in their calendar, and as soon as they’re over they start asking when they’ll be on again. 
 

 

 

 
 

Time keeps moving on

I can’t believe tomorrow marks the last day of the year. The past couple of weeks have passed in a blur of pre-Christmas parties, end of year school and preschool wrap ups, the chaotic packing for a Christmas Eve departure for a Christmas spent away, and of course Christmas thrown in for good measure.
 
Through all the chaos has been wonderful time with family and friends and lots of fun, excitement and laughter from all of us, before we get those tired eyes and the tears start. We have had a ball, but come New Years Day, I will be very pleased to pack my family in the car and head home from the big smoke to our little home in the country and enjoy the peace and quiet and routine that keeps us going.
 
I hope you and yours have had a fabulous friend and family filled Christmas time like we have and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year and may your 2013 be full of love, laughter and minimal drama.
 

 

 

Thanks Chrissy for the Fabulous Glasses, we ‘ll be wearing them to watch the Fireworks!

Everything Old is New Again

One of the things I love about my Muddy Organiser going to school is reliving my childhood, or parts of it anyway! There’s been stories they’re reading at school or that she brings home from the library, sports I’d forgotten about like tunnel ball. I love watching her learn new songs and dances for the school social and singing along with her.

I was extra excited though last week when she bought home some string. Not just any string, but a loop of string to do Cat’s Cradle with. I can remember spending hours and hours trying new tricks with the string, I was hopeless but it didn’t stop me trying! My Muddy Organiser though has proved to be quite a whizz with the string, she can already do the Harbour Bridge and is teaching her friends how to do it. My Mum (god bless the teacher in her) has dug through her bookshelf and found a book on Cat’s Cradle and other string things which the Muddy Organiser is learning from to add to her string repertoire. She has already well surpassed my string abilities.

The thing I love most about the string is it’s portable, she takes it everywhere, it’s not electronic, it’s just good old fashioned fun at it’s best, just like my childhood. A teacher friend tells me elastics are the next thing coming back in!

Lotions and Potions for my Scavenger

I’m starting to wonder if my Muddy Puzzler might become a bit of a Chemist, either that or a treasure hunter. Every time I turn my back she has snuck away another one of our creams, or soap or gels. Glue has also gone missing in action, as well as sunscreen or lipstick. It’s not only creams and gels though, nothing is exempt from my little scavenger, before we went to a BBQ on the weekend she snaffled the salad servers, they took me 15 minutes to find hidden under the spare bed, my iPad gets the same treatment, as does any bit of jewellery. The one that got me last week though was a box full of band aids and Muddy Hubby’s lunchbox which had his leftover afternoon tea in it. By the time I found her she had a full belly and both her and the lunch box were covered in band aids.
 
Nobody is able to escape her ministrations though, Muddy Pixie has been decorated in makeup and had her hair cut, Muddy Bubby has had his hair styled with sunscreen, and the pillows on my bed are often smeared with hair gel or deodorant. My phone is one of her favourite things to sneak away, she puts it on silent so she can watch videos of herself or play games and I follow the vibrations in the floor as I ring it, until I find it and her!
 
I am not worried, I know she’s bored, very bored, very ready for preschool next year and some outside stimulation. I make no excuses for the busy way things are at the moment, we will get there and she won’t forever be sneaking under beds with make-up and creams (I hope). Each time it happens though I am reminded to pack things away properly in either very high or lockable spots to help minimise the chance of it happening again!
 
 
 
 
 

Concert Fever

The last week has passed in a rush of pretty dresses, parties, preschool concerts and ballet concerts. We’ve had rehearsals and our scary first foray into ballet concert make-up! We’ve had costume changes and hair spray in abundance to keep the wispy bits of hair in a tight bun.
 
Through it all we have had lots of fun, lots of photos and lots of proud Muddy Mummy, tear-in-the-eye moments. Each day I wake up and pinch myself in amazement that I have 4 beautiful Muddy Kids and feel like I’ve blinked and missed the last 6 years, as I now have a little ballerina, who proudly danced on stage, accepted her cup and her encouragement trophy, all without a clingy moment or worried cry!
 
Both the preschool concert and the ballet concert were hot, hot, hot days, 40 plus degrees, and my lovely Mum (Nana) came and sat through them both, helping me to look after the Muddy Kids and take photos and videos to make sure we don’t miss a bit of it! I am now officially exhausted and we have a few weeks of school, birthday parties and Christmas parties still to come before the guy in the big red suit visits, somehow I’m not sure that the next few weeks will pass without a few tantrums from all of us!
 

 

 

A Snippet Here and There

I know I have joked before about being a Harvest Widow, about solo-parenting over the big harvest season. Five and a half weeks on and we’re still not quite finished, just under 500acres of Lupins to go and they’re not liking the heat!
 
We gets snippets of time with Muddy Hubby here and there, a quick lie down next to him while he drops in for a sleep for an hour, a quick trip in the truck as Muddy Hubby pulled onto our road just as the bus pulled up after school, a brief chat while he loads or unloads the truck or we help shift gear.
 
Then on Sunday we had a few uninterrupted hours with Muddy Hubby, we made the most of it, heading into the local pool and playing in the park, getting takeaway Chinese and eating as a family for the first time in weeks. It was lovely, quality time to soak up Muddy Hubby before he headed out to slip in some sheep work.
 
 
 

 

Spending up Big

I am always in two minds when a big event comes up in town, do we go and come home exhausted, overtired and with considerably less money in my wallet. Or do we stay home and make our own fun?
 
Friday saw the big School Fete all organised. The Muddy Organiser was so very excited, she could barely contain herself. So I loaded up the rest of the Muddy Kids and headed straight to the school fete after school (it went from 3-7pm). I walked in and I was overwhelmed, there were so many stalls and activities and people! I had no idea where to start.
 
My problem too, was that I hadn’t set a limit to spending or activities in my head. Having never been before I wasn’t sure what to expect. It worked on a ticket system, you bought a heap of tickets and these were exchanged at most of the stalls. I quickly decided on a yes to face painting and fingernail painting, and yes to the jumping castle. The rest I was happy to avoid, but they suckered me in with the showbags and each of the Muddy Girls went home with one.
 
I have learned my lesson though, buy a set amount of tickets early and they can choose what to spend their tickets on, and once they’re gone, they’re gone and there’s no more! For some reason I found it heaps easier to spend tickets than cash! Very Dangerous! We did all have a lovely time though (even me) and they have started talking about what they would like to do at next year’s fete!
 
I am curious though – how do you manage kids and spending at big events?
 

Grateful for my Home Town

Last weekend we headed back to my home town of Sydney to see my wonderful Mum and catch up with some wonderful friends. Each time I return ‘home’ I am reminded of how much I love my home town, how wonderful it was to grow up in such a diverse and culture rich city of Sydney. To grow up around the harbour and on the water with boats. To grow up going to shows in Sydney and watching musicals with amazement. To me I will always love Sydney and will never get tired of spending time there for visits.

I know that the farm is my home and I couldn’t be happier but feel very lucky that I can visit my home town of Sydney, stay with my family and that my Muddy Kids get to experience Sydney in all it’s glory. We take them to the park and on ferry rides, out on the harbour on the boat, we watch the fireworks or try new foods. My Dad (Hi Dad) will on rare occasions even make fresh sushi for us.

Often I think the most exciting part for the Muddy Kids is watching the garbage truck collect the garbage or counting how many buses go past. Or at the moment, going up and down stairs, with a two-storey house it’s a novelty to ‘play upstairs’ then bring everything down and ‘play downstairs’.

So this week after a visit back to my Home Town I am reminded how grateful I am to have grown up there and have the opportunity to share some of the same experiences with my Muddy Hubby and the Muddy Kids.

 

Linking up with Maxabella, over at Village Voices for 52 Weeks of Grateful. It really is a great place to stop by and check out some lovely blogs and read some beautiful gratefuls, make sure you take the time!

Did I really sign up for this?

I will warn you in advance, this post is about Poo, read on if you like or walk away like I wished I could have at the time….

Most Days I love being a parent, no matter how hard the day is, I still feel so blessed to have 4 beautiful healthy children. The whinging the whining, the tantrums it’s all part of parenting. The messy house, the crumbs everywhere, the toilet training, it’s all good. Some days though there are things that make me stop and go ‘Did I really sign up for this?’.

I had one of those moments this week. In the midst of ‘Happy Hour’ me trying to cook dinner the Muddy Girls packing up all their hair elastics, ribbons and clips that they had spread all over the bathroom, and Muddy Bubby very proudly tottering around the house on his feet, up and walking, I heard a sentence I don’t want to hear again

Muddy Pixie: ‘Mum, He’s got Poo on his Cup’,
Me: ‘Sorry, say that again’

Out comes the Pixie with Muddy Bubby’s drink cup in hand ‘I said he got Poo on his cup’
I looked and yes sure enough it was half covered in Poo. As I was gagging I asked how it happened, ‘He put it in the toilet’ she said, ‘but why has it got Poo’ on it I asked. ‘Because I didn’t flush my poo’. There quite simply, she forgot to flush, something I thought I would have taught her as a parent and reinforced over and over again, but no, it is a parenting fail, one that won’t be happening again, I have repeated the phrase over and over to them since it happened ‘Remember to flush’.

We disinfected everyone and the toilet, we disinfected the cup, and ran it under hot, hot, water for ages, I then washed it, and then because I can never look at it in the same way again, I threw it out. Yes I felt wasteful, but at least I don’t have to look at it and gag every time I see it.

And still I think ‘Did I really sign up for this?’ Do you have those moments too? Please tell me I’m not alone in wondering if this was part of the deal of parenting?

That’s the way the Mulberry Crumbles

It’s that time of year again in our house where the fingers are almost constantly stained purple, there are big purple grins on everyone’s faces and if the kids disappear in the house yard there is one place to find them – at the Mulberry Tree. The Muddy Kids each have their own bucket and collect as many as they can, along with as many as they can squeeze in their mouth.
 
They got a good first haul on the weekend and after chopping off all the stems I made them into a Mulberry Crumble. It is quick, easy and yummy, all winning things in our house. Sadly we were out of ice cream so served it with a dollop of cream, it was still tasty but not quite the same.
 
To make the crumble it’s easy:
I spread the Mulberries in the cake tin, you can sprinkle with Castor Sugar if you like.
For the Crumble Topping I used 1/2 Cup Plain Flour, 1/2 Cup Self-Raising Flour, 1 Cup Brown Sugar and between 150-200g Butter. I whizzed it altogether and then spread it on top.
 Normally I would crumble it altogether with my fingers, but I was in a hurry so the food processor on my stick blender was quicker.
Pop it in the oven for about 25-30 mins and serve hot with vanilla ice cream (or cream)