a little help...

A little help goes a long way...look at this...what are you planning for Christmas Presents this year...you can Give A Miracle...as little as $50 buys a cradle for a baby at the orphanage...$25 a set of sheets and towels...imagine being able to fund a whole cottage (a House Mum lives there with 15 children full time....) And Ben when you are reading this I would like this for Christmas please...not a whole cottage obviously...but something else...

I am busy cutting up a sheet to make handkerchiefs...Craft Hope are requesting handkerchiefs and pillow cases (to go in the baby cradles instead of them sleeping on plastic) and so on as well as baby blankets, booties and beanies...go take a look and see if you can even send a few pillow cases to help...

And if you do nothing else just pop over to The Miracle Foundation and spend a few minutes looking at the video...I found the movie Slum Dog Millionaire rather disturbing so it is nice to see this video of children in a positive situation...

And Children of the Forest...We sponsor a child there...Here she is...I would love to go and visit her one day...It is a very small charity and they are always in need of pencils, crayons, lead pencils, erasers, toothbrushes, hair brushes, and soap as well as underwear and clothing...maybe you can buy a few extra things when you are out shopping and send them off...every little bit helps make the difference in a child's life...it is easy to do nothing but not that much harder to do something...Lissy

busy morning...

We have had some VERY windy weather in over night and today...no damage fortunately...

After dropping Evangeline at her class, Morganne and I went to play group...Ben had taken her last week...she was very busy inside all morning...It was too wet and cold for any outside play...
Matching...Carrying...Music...Stacking...eeek...this was Morganne's idea and Dawn the playgroup leader was quite happy for her ot do it...Magnetic Play...And more magnetic play...Money...Window Cleaning....start them young...And playing with trains...Action songs...Morning tea...And then Jen and Imogen came for lunch...the girls played together beautifully...
And Evangeline stamping M's face..."for a treat" she said...lol...And we are in for a windy night too...Lissy

plenty to do...

There is always plenty to do around here and I have been pretty busy...I have been doing some more purging of stuff in the kitchen and my scrap room...sorting out some fabrics and stuff as I really want to get on and sew a few things for the girls while they are little...I have made an apron for Evangeline that she requested...it is mostly finished...but while I was sorting the fabric I got side tracked...I decided to make a few baby blankets to send to Craft Hope...destined for an orphanage in India...I have made two so far and will do one more and then post them off...they are cotton one side and a knit on the other side...While I have plenty of other jobs that need doing around here it is a nice feeling to do something for others...as a mum I find it very distressing to think of babies and children going with out the basic essentials in life...I am considering getting out my crochet hooks and seeing if I can make some squares for Knit A Square who make blankets for children orphaned or abandoned due to AIDS in Africa...I have some wool sitting around here that is not being put to good use...I have also been bundling up clothes again to send to Children of The Forest where we sponsor a child...mostly Morganne's clothes and some bigger clothes I have gathered too as there are kids up to the age of 16 there...some friends give me some gently worn clothes every so often to send...I figure these charities have probably suffered hugely with the global economic crisis...So I have been a bit side tracked from my clean up job...but I am back onto it today!

I have about 30 roses to start pruning...I stared some today...and a lot of weeds to remove in the garden...we have had a lot of wet and cold and very windy weather but the vegie patch looks rather happy! Evangeline made her own sandwich today using some of our very yummy lettuce...I am still working on the wooden furniture I bought for the girls...getting coats of paint on when the weather permits...here is E in her new apron next to the kitchenette...she chose the fabrics and wanted a bib apron...I went on excursion with Evangeline's class on Wednesday...to Landsdale Farm...the weather was pretty bad initially but fined up when needed...And there was an open classroom morning on Friday when you can go in and see the children's work...it was great to see what Evangeline is working on...writing...Trinomial and binomial blocks (the basis of algebra - each colour red, blue and yellow corresponds with a, b and c in algebra...)...Exchanging 1s 10s 100s and 1000s...And building structures and so on...Morganne is adding more words all the time...her latest is "bess" meaning mess! She actually took me to where she had spilled her water the other day saying "bess, bess"...She can say "yes" which is quite a positive way to communicate with a toddler...She doesn't ever say 'no" but will shake her head if the answer to a question is no...generally she will answer questions and you can work out what she wants...

Ben went back to work on Tuesday...we had thought he would be home for another couple of weeks...I still have the 14 layouts I started to finish...they all have the photos on the backgrounds...so I just need to add titles and journalling...and then I should print out some more photos...E wanted to make biscuits (cookies) the other night so we made a batch of Afgans...my childhood favourite...yum...And hanging around here together...E was a gem today and cleaned up the playroom all by herself...it was in a huge mess...Morganne is up from her sleep and now they are happily playing in the now clean playroom...so time for we to get some more jobs done...Lissy

another week...

I am not sure where time goes some days...and here it is the weekend again!

Ben and I went to Parliament House for lunch on Monday with our friends Frank (MLA) and Shauna...it is a beautiful old building and was rather interesting to have a look around and the meal was lovely too...

Evangeline is doing really well at speech and may not need to continue...YAY! We will do a review next week and see...Morganne is getting into her Suzuki music class now and trying to sing and do the actions...

Simona and the girls came over for a visit after school on Wednesday and we had the motorbike out which they loved...Morganne had her first little ride...Plus they climbed trees and rode on the tractor...lots of fun...We have had a lot of wintry weather too...we were supposed to go to Whiteman Park on Friday after school to meet with our mums group but the weather was horrid...I did manage to go and see a movie though...The Proposal...I laughed a lot and really enjoyed it...We have managed a bit of motorbike riding today in a fine spell...Morganne is playing a lot with the mini baby born dolls...and in her car...And we have a new member of the family...she turned up on Wednesday and as yet seems to have no owners...we have called her Tilly and she has settled in fine! We thought Ben was home for another couple of weeks but he is leaving on Tuesday...We are having some friends for morning tea tomorrow and other than that we have no real plans for the rest of the weekend...I didn't get any more scrap booking done this week...maybe tonight...Lissy

our sunday...

We have had a nice Sunday...Evangeline has been keen to ride to the shop on her bike so Ben and her set off this morning on their adventure...it is about 2km each way...Meanwhile Morganne and I had breakfast...And then we went to Eden's birthday at the Cuddly Animal Farm...it was nice and warm...E had great time visiting and feeding all the animals with Eden and Morganne had a good time too...Tonight we had to go and pick up a car at someones house and Morganne screamed all the way home...that does my head in! But other than that
all was pretty good...I hope you had a good one too...Lissy

winter days...

June has been cold....well 17C is cold for us! And the nights have been 3-5C which is positively frosty! We have had some much needed rain too....and the girls have enjoyed that....it is Morganne first real experience out in the the puddles... Evangeline is very confident on her bike now with out trainer wheels...even on the gravel...Evangeline is learning the read and can sound out and write a lot of 3 letter (CVC) words...considering she has had so many hearing problems she is doing extremely well...We had a play day and lunch at the Gringarts last weekend as both dads were away at work so it was a girly day...Eden & E are like two peas in a pod...E has had fun looking through the scrap booking albums...the best layouts are the ones that tell a story...not just a pretty photo...E wasn't really interested in the pages that had no story...and neither was I...it reaffirmed that I want to continue to record the everyday stories of our lives...And we have had some nice days to be outside too...And this is why I can never sit down to read a magazine or watch TV...And Morganne is enjoying her food....lol...
And I have started a load of scrap book pages...I have all the photos ready and then have put them all onto pages and will then go and add title and journalling to them all...not my usual process as I usually complete one page at a time but it seems to be very quick! I plan to get them done this week sometime as this was a busy weekend...

Michael and Alli and the boys came for dinner last night...it was so nice to see only half of them....lol...they are fading away before our eyes! I am so proud of them...Ben has not seen them for months and was blown away! And today we are off to Eden's birthday party...at an animal farm...Lissy

18 months old...

Yes...Morganne is already 18 months old! And sure is keeping us on our toes....she loves to get outside...digging in pot plants...running around and going for walks...and visiting the dog...And when inside get into things and turn on light switches too...rearranging things on shelves...I affectionately call her "Morganne the Destroyer"...she draws on walls, gets into drawers and things like that that Evangeline (who is no angel...lol..) never did...and sometimes she just chucks things around...Oh and shoes are a big focus of attention...putting hers on and making sure every one else has their shoes too...or wearing everyone else's shoes! She is 12 kg and 80cm tall...So a little hefty which is not surprising as she is a good eater! Cheese and mashed potatoes are still big favourites but she also tucks into eggs, vegemite sandwiches, pear, bananas, pasta, chicken and other meats and occasionally some vegetables other than potatoes! She has a very cheeky personality and sings all the time...She can sing the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and ABC but obviously doesn't know the words...she does some actions too...We go to a Suzuki music session every week and she loves it...And she loves the Montessori playgroup we go to at Evangeline's school...And lots of talking going on and more "words" all the time...common ones now are "ge da" for get down, "bap" for up, "doh doh" for good dog, "sus" for shoes, "sos" for socks, 'es" for yes, "bobble" for bottle, "bumper" for jumper, "mor" for both more and milk...and she points to her mouth if hungry...and we are getting the odd tantrum if she cannot make her self understood or if she doesn't get her own way! He hair is getting quite long with lots of curls...and she likes to "do" her hair in the mornings with Evangeline and to clean her teeth!! She has suddenly gotten a lot more teeth and now has 16...and each one has been torturous! Baths are still very popular...just as well as we tend to get mucky outside and need a couple some days...We are so happy to have her around! Lissy

June already...

We spent the weekend at the farm as it was a long weekend here in Western Australia...it was COLD but we had a good visit...cold is to be expected at this time of year I suppose...I made lots of cakes and muffins and cookies and meals so my sister has a bit of a cooking break! The kids all played and Ben went shooting...we haven't been at the farm since ChristmasWe headed home on Monday...which was also our wedding anniversary...we have been married 6 years...here is our family self portrait for the occasion...not a good one of me but Ben and the girls look great...I may not be looking as flash as I was that day 6 years ago but these two little cherubs are sure worth it!I was four months pregnant with Evangeline at the time...Ben and I were talking today about some of the cookware that we got for wedding presents looking a little worse for wear after 6 years...and I said so are we...lol...I took mum to the airport on Tuesday as she is off to the UK for 3 weeks and then to Italy to stay with my cousin on the Lakes...E has an ear infection which is not supposed to happen now she has grommets...and not much else happening around here...I have been tackling my scrap room again and I am making great progress...we may even get to Ikea and get some overhead cupboards...I want to get organised so Ican start some projects...Ben is off to work on Saturday for a week...I hope your month has started well - Lissy