Rest of the weekend

This is the spiky cucumber that I mentioned we collected from the farm - rather intimidating to look at, but actually rather tasty when you get into the flesh. Give it a go sometime...

The picture is of the rehearsal beforehand - doesn't quite capture the moment, but the video is priceless!

After our trip to the farm we came home and set ourselves to cooking up
some of the produce, and over the rest of the weekend we've produced
roast pumpkin soup, pumpkin scones, pizzas with pumpkin, cherry tomatoes
and eggplant, pikelets, pancakes and apple sponges...the oven has never
worked so hard!
Sunday morning was a family service at Church - the girls have been
counting down to this day for weeks, and were up very early to make sure
that we weren't going to be late. They loooove their kids church program
and love being on-stage, so combine the two and you can imagine the
excitement! They performed two songs and were fantastic - the only
complaint was that they wanted to do more songs next time...

Down on the farm

We spent a fantastic morning down on the old family farm on Saturday,
visiting Uncle Marshall and exploring all around the place. The creek
was flowing with freezing cold water, and the girls had a ball throwing
in the rocks, looking at all the debris and damage that the floods left
behind. Rather amazing to see debris halfway up very tall trees and to
be standing 6-7 metres below that level!
The girls also really enjoyed raiding Uncle Marshall's fruit trees and
vegetable garden - I think Olivia must have eaten about half a kilo of
cherry tomatoes before we left, as well as a good chunk of the wild
growing spiky cucumber (that has to be seen to be believed - tastes
rather good though). We came away with pumpkins, eggplant, tomatoes,
cherry tomatoes, passionfruit, spiky cucumbers, mandarins, oranges and
lemons - all delicious. For someone who doesn't really like to cook,
Uncle Marshall has an amazing array of things growing! We even managed
to find a couple of late mulberries and had a look at all the buds on
the stonefruit trees ready for next summer....yummm!
Papa gave us a few insights into the old milking sheds, told stories of
things that the family used to get up to growing up, and kept us all
entertained throughout the morning - and managed to get the old farm ute
going so that we could have a drive around - thanks Papa!

So what's been happening?

Greg has been very busy during his weekends constructing a pathway to
our front stairs and deck, which has been a huge job! My Dad's
assistance was greatly appreciated and the final product is nearly
completed - just one more coat of paint to go now.
Next week the digger is back to build our sandstone retaining wall, move
lots of dirt around and then we'll have turf going down soon after -
then the yard will start to look less like a construction site!

Mother's Day 2011

I love being a Mum, and found this poem - unfortunately I don't know the author's name, but I rather thought that it captured something of what I feel sometimes as a Mum with young children...

Today I left some dishes dirty
The bed got made around two thirty
The nappies soaked a little longer
The odour grew a little stronger
The crumbs I spilled the day before
Were staring at me from the floor
The fingerprints there on the wall
I guess will still be there next fall
The dirty streaks on those window panes
Will still be there next time it rains
'For shame, oh lazy one' you say
What did you do at home all day?

I nursed a baby 'till she slept
I held a toddler while she wept
I played a game of hide and seek
I squeezed a toy so it would squeak
I pulled a sled, I sang a song
I taught a child what's right and wrong
What did I do this whole day through?
Not much that shows, I guess it's true
Unless you think that what I've done
Might be important to someone
With brightest eyes, and softest hair
If that is true, I've done my share.

Our girls at Mooloolaba. Thanks to Kathy Hughes.

This year, for the first time we had Mother's Day with just our immediate family - the five of us. No rushing around, long drives and grumpy girls - instead a cruisy morning with a delicious breakfast, some wallaby spotting, the traditional present hunt, plenty of tickles and cuddles etc. before heading off to Church. The three girls all fell asleep in the car on the way home (a rarity!) and then we had homemade pizzas for lunch - yum!!

I even enjoyed some time in the hammock on the back deck (before I was discovered) and managed to read over half the Sunday paper! We watched the girls riding their bikes and then later in the afternoon we and three other families from the estate enjoyed drinks and nibblies while watching two bonfires of cleared and dead vegetation on the neighbours block, with our local fire warden invited to the gathering.
A relaxed, relatively unplanned and yet delightful day - thank you to my fantastic husband and gorgeous girls!!

Happy Nanna's Day

We took advantage of Nanna visiting us to celebrate mother's day
with her early - so the day started with our traditional present hunt
around the house, then Church, followed by lunch at a favourite
restaurant of ours. Even Lauren got in on the action, enjoying a slice
of lemon for her lunch...she really enjoyed it!Thanks Mum - you're the greatest!

Projects

With a new house, there's always some projects on the go, and after building a raise deck/path to the clothesline, the current one is the front yard landscaping.
Greg had my Dad helping on the weekend, which allowed things to move forward far more quickly -
thanks Dad for all your hard work! Someone Greg knew through work also donated about 20 large sandstone blocks to the cause, that they had no use for, so the digger was put to good use building some stone stairs as well as pushing dirt around and escavating around the side (so that we have somewhere to park the van - oh, and the van is another project entirely!!).
Olivia was a keen helper at times, although the girls were far less impressed with the heavy machinery than their two males cousins would have been...
The plan is to finish the front path this weekend weather permitting - and the blustery winds and chilly temperatures should at least guarantee clear weather, albeit rather cold!