Board Games for a 4 year old

Now that baby boy is a bit older, we have been able to play a few board games with him that we can all enjoy, and it has been really fun.  My favourite place to find board games and puzzles is the op shop/thrift store.  I have found some real classics there, that are so well priced you are happy to buy them just to try them out.

My best find was this great one (picture above) Camelot Jr.  It can be played with one player (or more to help) and is a strategy game using different block sizes and combinations to save the princess.  The beautiful wooden pieces make it so nice to play and use.

Our other family favourites suited to pre schoolers (ie. no reading involved) are:

The aMAZEing Labyrinth

Dragon Chase

Spot It!

Tumblin' Monkeys

Snakes and Ladders

We are always looking for more suggestions?

My Dishwasher

I really do love having a dishwasher, and particularly remember this whenever we have people over for dinner.  Sometimes I get sad when I realise that for my mothers entire life she never had a dishwasher.  Well, I feel very blessed to have one…and have been thinking lately about all the things I can wash in it.  Here are a few of my favourites:

• The washing up scourer and brush (I just put them in the cutlery basket)
• Toothbrushes
• Kids Drink-bottles
• Kids toys (not the ones with little holes where water can get trapped though :-)
• Jars and takeaway containers (I am really in love with using jars for storage at the moment)
• And of course, ALL my dirty dishes and plates

A financial spring clean out

Spring is here!  I love spring and all it brings with it: warmer weather, early wake ups, and just a hint of  of holidays with christmas around the corner.   Last week, spring motivated me to take stock of our finances, and get back on track.  So I started early friday morning with my to do list:

• Cancel some subscriptions I wasn't really using anymore
• Shop around for a better health insurance deal
• Get a re-quote on our car and house insurance
• Consolidate our debts into the one place

By the end of the day I had saved our family $180 a month.  Quite an achievement I thought :-)

I can highly recommend the re-quote of house and contents insurance.  I didn't realise that our insurance was automatically upping the value of our house and contents each year we held the policy.  And as much as other peoples antique furniture might increase in value...My super amart couch will not.  So just getting the policy put back to my original value estimations from when we started the policy gave me a $20 a month saving.

(The picture above was taken on the free ferry that travels our beautiful Brisbane river.  A perfect spring adventure!)

Winter warmers

I finished the scarf! Baby boy was so excited, and used it for a scarf for about an hour and a 'rope' from then on :-)  It did motivate me to make a few more though, so am hoping to finish some new projects for my nieces before they move to a colder climate.

We also made cupcakes for baby boys best friend (his cousin) birthday.  The little bee's were a hit, and we loved giving them to such a little cutie.

Projects

I feel like I have so much stuff going on at the moment, and can't seem to find the time/motivation to finish anything well.  So how do I solve the problem...start something new :-)  Baby boy picked out some rainbow wool for me to knit him a scarf  (its been a while, so thankyou Youtube).  Hopefully finished product can be blogged about in the not so distant future!

Family finds

Our little family discovered geocaching about a month ago, and we have been having great fun.  It's a perfect family activity that involves all of us; we get out in fresh air, find treasure and make use of technology that is always in out pocket.  Baby boy calls it treasure hunting, and loves to be in on the race to find what we are looking for.  

My new saturday ritual

The big 2 grocery stores have really been grating on me lately.  It feels like every time I go in to shop a product that was on my shopping list has now been replaced by a store brand version, or they make finding the product I used to buy 'difficult' to find.  Once you start looking for it, it really is sad to notice the tactics that stores are using to 'encourage' you to buy their brand only...one day I literally had to kneel on the floor to find the ham I usually buy as they have made all the shelves chest height and only put their brands on the top two...grrrrrrr!  Anyway, I have sent off a few emails to the stores and got a lovely written reply about 'just doing what the customer wants' and other similar statements I couldn't really believe. 

It all got a little depressing until about four weeks ago a local farmers market started up in the suburb next to mine...literally five minutes down the road, and it is on a Saturday!  Day one was wet, rainy and cold, but I was determined to go and found some beautiful products and loved hearing 'we picked it yesterday' or 'our farm is not far from here'.  So my new saturday morning ritual is to get up early and go to our farmers market (with my shopping list in hand), and as a bonus I usually find a beautiful warm treat to bring home to my beautiful sleeping boys.

Night and Day

We celebrated Earth Hour this year by reading our bedtime stories by candle light.  Baby boy and I talked about how lucky we are to be able to turn on a light switch when we want to because not all children have that blessing in their lives.  In a time when it seems our kids have access to and can get all they need and want, its good to teach them that it really is a blessing and one that we should be thankful for each day.

We visited Nan at Mount Tamborine this week.  I love looking around her garden and admiring her beautiful gardening skills.  The mountain air and green grass always cheers us up (at least from the drive to get there anyway).  

Valentine's Day

I am growing to love valentine's day more and more as I get older.  I have ignored the commercialisation and present side of it, and have been embracing the love and sharing side.  This year baby boy and I made sugar cookies to share with work and kindy friends- I knew it was a success when we got a write up in the 'What we did today' section of his class kindy book :-)  I also woke up on valentine's morning to a pathway of cut out hearts down the hallway-ending in a love note and turkish delight chocolate.  (my other half leaves for work before I wake up).  It was a beautiful day that we shared with family and friends.  No expensive gifts needed.

My sugar cookie recipe was from the 'Lion House Classics Cookbook'.  I have a great memory of eating there with my mum and dad on my very first visit to Salt Lake City.  I found an online version of the recipe here.

having

 

I love these thoughts and sentiments.  

My baby boy turned four years old, and I am grateful that he and my husband can be enough.

I am grateful for 2013, and all that it has the potential to bring, whatever that is.   



(image found here)

Gifting

I thought I would try something a little different for extended family presents this year, and decided to pot up some bulbs from my garden.  I don't know the name of the flower, but they are huge and pink and no matter how many times I neglect them they keep appearing in my garden, so I thought I would share the joy and dug up about 7 bulbs to replant for Christmas gifts.  It was pretty easy and best of all free!  For other family members I gave jars of jam and honey from (this guy), and close family received personalised uno cards, which turned out really nice (but customer service from the company was really bad so I don't feel the need to promote it :-). 

Creating Christmas

I love Christmas.  Being the youngest in a family of six I always felt that everyone grew out of things a little earlier than I would have liked, and  I always wanted Christmas traditions to go on longer than my older siblings.  So one of the great blessings of having my own family is the chance to create our own christmas traditions and scenes.  Baby boy is old enough now to really understand and grasp all the Christmas stories and symbols, so its made this year even more special.

This is how our first week of the Christmas season went:

The first thing to come out was the Nativity scenes.  On the last Monday night in November I bought out a beautiful wooden nativity scene and we went through all the characters and how they related to christmas.  We sat as a family and talked about Mary and Joseph, and of course baby Jesus.  It was a great start to the season.   

That Friday night we put blankets on the floor, popped some popcorn, turned off the lights and watched a christmas movie. (This year we watched 'Arthur Christmas').  It was so much fun!

Then on Saturday we put up the Christmas tree and lights outside.

Did I mention that I love Christmas?

 

Spring Inspiration

(Image source)

I like to think that things in my home fit the description above.  I like the power of deciding what resides in my home, and having the power to remove 'stuff' if I want to.  I like having memories and stories connected to everyday things.  I recently replaced my newish and pristine mixing bowls with my mothers and grandmothers used and memory filled bowls.  I liked replacing the new with the old, becuase they have a story and are now part of my story - long after their owners are no longer with me.

cleaning the medicine cabinet

 (Image found here)

When spring arrives I always feel a little extra motivation to clean and organise my home.  I love the extra sunshine, the warmer weather and the hope of my favourite holidays to come.  This week I cleaned out and re-sorted my kitchen cupboards.  One of the last of the day was the cupboard which holds all our medicines.  Taking stock of our medications has been a regular occurance for me since an 'indicent' we had in our first month of marriage (...Imagine me, waking up my new husband at 2am in the morning as I had a really bad headache, there is no pain killers in the house, so I send him out to find some.  On his return I am fast asleep...thinking he didn't drive all that way for nothing he wakes me up and tells me his home with my medication).  Since then we have always had panadol in the home :-)  

So in sorting and cleaning my medicine cabinet, I check use by dates and put aside medicines we no longer need.  Disposing of them is the important thing- I always take them to the pharmacy and have them disposed of safely.  Medicines of any kind should not be put in the bin, or flushed down the toilet.  It can cause lots of problems for our waterways, and you never have to worry that someone might pick them up and take them.

This program gives more information:  http://www.returnmed.com.au/

Keeping my garden green...or not?

Six months ago we said goodbye to our three little chickens (to be honest I was suprised they were still alive, I am the laziest pet owner in history...evidence that I should never buy a pet with a life span of 3 years +).  I did love fresh eggs, and the noises they made when they were laying, but after three years I was getting a bit over cleaning up the poop, them digging up all my plants and spreading bark all over the patio.  I knew I wanted to do more gardening this year..and in our backyard the two activities just didn't seem to go together.  

So I have been spending a lot more time in the garden, and am loving this time of year where its perfect weather to just sit and weed.  Yep, I am a little addicted to weeding.  I get to sit outside with baby boy and just zone out and pull weeds.  Very therapeutic...until I realised I am losing.  The weeds are winning, and no amount of hand weeding is going to save my front yard from bindii's.  So today I sucummbed and bought some weed killer...is it sad that I felt sick pulling it off the shelf.  I hate the thought of spraying chemicals on the grass where my son and I play, but if i don't spray it I can't see how I can stop my grass being taken over by the bad guys.  UUGGHH!   Can someone please commercialise a safe and effective weed killer.  I read this book last year, and unfortunately it has fueled my weed killer guilt trip.  But still a great read :-)

My go to recipes (for this month anyway)

I am not much of a cook, and I really hate going to the effort of cooking something new and either not liking it or it just not turning out right.  So i have started a list of my 'go to' recipes for when I am asked to bring something along to an event.  These recipes have to be easy, work everytime and I have to like eating them.

For something sweet, I have been loving Chocolate and Coconut Slice.  I follow this recipe exaclty and am always pleasently suprised.  And the bonus is, I always have the ingredients in by cupboard (no fancy stuff).

My go to salad at the moment is Roast Pumpkin and Spinich
I see this salad around quite a bit but I have adapted it to my liking:
-Cut 1/2 a butternut pumpkin into 1 cm cubes, coat in olive oil and salt and roast on an oven tray for approx 25 minutes.
-Once the pumpkin is cooled you can make up the salad.
-Mix lightly in a flat salad bowl, one medium sized bag of fresh spinish leaves, 100 grams of broken up feta, roasted pumpkin and 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds.
-Dress with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Enjoying where I am

I am really trying to enjoy what I have at the moment.  It always suprises me some of the hard stuff that people have to go through, but the more I get some life experience I realise that everyone goes through hard stuff...no one is immune, and you have to find your own way to pass through it.  At the moment I am loving having a toddler, a loving husband, employment and a home to live in.  Much more than many others have.  

I am embracing having one child, and making sure I enjoy every moment of it, just incase i don't get a chance to do it again.  And its a lot of fun!

Getting involved...with my toddler in tow

This month I started studying to be a Breastfeeding Counsellor.  It is something I have wanted to do for a long time..and I am so excited to finally get started.  It is a lot more study and work than I expected, but that isn't such a bad thing.  Today baby boy and I went together to visit a local hospital and some obstetricians to hand out Breastfeeding Education Class information; it was fun to go together.  And that is something that I really love about the ABA, you can always bring you kids along...to anything.  So I am looking forward to more excursions with baby boy on my counselling journey.  Plus we loved our sneaky peak through the windows of the special care nursery together (where we both had visited 3 1/2 years earlier).

The small things

We have been pretty busy over here, with all the life important things that can fill your days and nights if you let them.  Fortunately, I have also been able to find time for some 'slow' activities with baby boy.  And have remembered how much we loved doing things together (just the two of us).  Play dough is now his activity of choice, and he will happily sit for hours if only I will sit next to him.  I forgot how simple structured activities can fill his mind with wonder, if I do them with him, and focus my attention on only him.  

If you haven't read this post yet, i highly recommend it.

Earth hour

We were traveling for earth hour this year, so I was presently suprised when we sat down at our hotel restuarant to find these lovely candles burning and lighting our delicious meal.  I would name the hotel and write about how great the food was...but they charged us $35 just to park our car so I don't feel they warrant my recommendation.  We did have a great time though :-)