The Day Before One

The day before Rachel turned one, I took the girls (Hugo was having a day with his dad) to the park. It was a lovely day. We did all the usual things that you do at a park. Rachel did all the usual things a baby does at a park - like eat dirt.

I made the girls delicious food for lunch, in the form of a bento. Grapes with flower cucumber, corn puffs, ham, tomato slices, more cucumber flowers, carrot sticks and cauliflower hunks (both slightly cooked) with Japanese mayo. They also had yoghurt squeezies, just in case.

I even ate some of this, when they got bored. Actually, I also had to hide some of the containers when it became apparent that they were intent on eating all of the grapes and corn puff first, to the exclusion of the other food.

This was the first time that I put mayo in for the carrots and cauliflower to be dipped into prior to eating (it's a very Japanese thing (although usually with broccoli, but whatever)). Don't know that I'll do that again, because the first thing Rachel did was stick her whole hand in it to find out what it was. And then not eat it at all.

It occurs to me as I look at these photos that now I have two little girls, not a little girl and a baby. And I'm ok with that.

Bunnings Beginnings

Thanks to the rainy weather we've been having, I had cause to rack my brain thinking of fun indoor places to take the kids to for entertainment. On my to do list was a trip to Bunnings and I thankfully remembered that they have a great play area for the kids too. Right next to the cafe. Well played Bunnings, well played.
 
Anyway, so off I trot to Bunnings with three kids in tow, and while I couldn't find what I was looking for, I did have a wander down the seeds isle and pick up a few packs. I'd seen this idea for growing seedlings on the internet somewhere, and thought I'd give it a go. (Despite it being winter.)

So Sophie got to help plant the first lot of seedlings, and thus, they were some quick growing Cress, which is good for kids because you can't do too much wrong, the grow fast and you can eat them afterwards. We have had a lot of fun watching these grow and because Sophie has been involved, it's made me much more diligent about watering them, checking they are in the sun etc. Maybe I should get her to help me with all the gardening...

We had some for lunch today, the girls had theirs in their salad, and I had mine in my soup. Delicious! I've replanted Sophie's to a bigger pot, and planted in some pumpkin seeds that I hope will turn into pumpkins. Exciting!

You may be wondering if I am in fact procrastinating any party/casual afternoon tea preparation for Saturday, and I'd say you are probably right. I still haven't even cooked anything. I've written a rough list of what food we will be serving though. That's almost the same right?

Party Prep

It's been very nearly the last thing on my mind of late, but Rachel actually turns one in a week and a half. Yikes! First birthdays are always a bit of a mystery to me. I mean, on one hand this is their first birthday! WOW! And also, you, as parents, have survived that first year. Wow again right? But on the other, they aren't really going to remember it, they don't really have their own friends at the stage and if I'm honest, I'm more worried about surviving their teenage years than that first year of baby-ness. 

Anyway, despite all of these things, we did send out invites to all the family and by the time you've done that you've got sixty people invited. And you think you are going to have to do this megga party and have loads of activities and things for people to do and it's just going to be crazy chaos. But then, you only get twenty RSVPs, so it's not such a big deal after all. In fact, it's more like a casual afternoon tea than a party. 

Hence why I haven't bothered to think about it, until it occurred to me on Friday that it's seven days away. And I haven't even thought about what food I might serve these people yet. So I did a think and the first thing I thought I'd better do would be to organise what Rachel will be wearing. Priorities right? She's got a drawer full of dresses though, and other clothes, so even I can't rationalise making an entirely new outfit for her to wear, birthday or no. 

So I did this instead. 

Yep, I put a monkey face on the seat of her pants. 

She's going to look so cute crawling and walking all over the lawn with that cute monkey-faced-butt swishing about. Talk about awesome. And I can sit back and feel relieved. I've done something for this party/casual afternoon tea. Who cares if no one gets fed there, the birthday girl is going to look so funky. 

Milestone at the Doctors

Yesterday I took Sophie to the skin specialist to get a mole on her head looked at. I had planned this outing so that it would be when my parents returned, so they could look after Hugo and Rachel. I also packed Sophie lunch, because I wasn't sure how long it was going to take, and you can pretty much never be sure of doctors running on time anyway.

It was so fortuitous that I did because the doctor did not like the mole on Sophie's head at all, and wanted to do a biopsy then and there. So he put the numbing cream on and we sat and waited for 45 mins for it to work. Lunch was eaten during this time. What a win, because that 45 mins would have been so painful otherwise.

This is her lunch:

Sorry for the bad photo - we were at the doctors. Cream cheese flower sandwiches, peas and corn (not eaten, but I live in hope), ham, carrots, avocado, tomato and cucumber slices.

After it was eaten they put antiseptic into her head and I had to hold her while they did a quick shave and scrape. We watched veggie tales while that happened. Her head has a little white plaster on it now and she is totally fine. No tears at all actually. I can't believe it, but that was her first haircut. At least it's memorable.

Unexpected but True

On Sunday, I actually managed to get some writing done in the afternoon. So much so that I was pretty excited to continue after dinner. I was in "The Zone". Steve was even fabulous enough to retreat to the bedroom, rather than try to watch an episode of something on the TV in the living room and distract me from "The Zone".

At about 10 he came out and commented that it was getting pretty late. Zone or no Zone, it was probably time I was in bed. I looked at him and said:

"I'm done."

"Oh good," he replies. 

"No," I clarified, "I'm done. As in, I've finished it. I'm actually done. Written the epilogue and everything."

That's right people! DONE!

Well, first draft done anyway. There is no way anyone is reading this baby yet. There are whole paragraphs that I've glossed over or skipped out, or even left myself a note like "blah blah, write this later". Some things changed between the time I first started writing and how I finished. I fleshed out detail about some characters that I'll need to go back and check matches their earlier descriptions. One of my main characters back story needs a complete overhaul, given when he ends up.  

Yep. I've got a lot of work to do. But I'm excited about it. In some ways, this editing thing is the best part. Where I chip away at the story and make it better, more refined. Give it polish and shape. Make it something that people will actually want to pick up and read. It's long and arduous, and I'm sure I'll want to tear my hair out when I realise that I've got to completely delete things that took me ages to write in the first place, but what I'll get in the end will be totally worth it. 

If this is not what God is like with us, I don't know what is. He is so excited to work away at us, and make us better. Help us to grow and change and be that beautiful thing that he knew was under our rocky exterior all the time. He knows that it's hard, and he shares our struggles when we want to run in the other direction. But in the end, it's worth it. All that growth and pain gives something amazing. 

Attempting to Stay Current and Attentive

I know I've been pretty terrible at posting lately and I keep using the excuse that I'm writing or I've got kids to look after or whatever. Don't get me wrong, these are all legitimate reasons that I'm not posting, but they are also excuses why I'm not posting. I feel sorry for all those people who do like to read along and are missing out now. I also know that when blogs that I read take a break, I tend to leave too, which means if I want to keep people reading, then I've got to keep posting. Sigh. It's a vicious cycle.

Anyway, this week has been fun and busy, which is the way I like it. Story is going really well everyone. I know it's the rough draft but I am liking where it's going. We've been to play group and prayer and had mothers group. All the usual things. Hugo likes to pull himself up and smile at things. Rachel has just worked out how to climb up onto stools to extend her reach. Sophie says a lot of things with her increasing vocabulary,  but my favourite phrases of the moment are: "Always hungry", "Goodness me!" and "Sometimes that happens".

Today we visited a friend who has a six week old bub. My three were very well behaved (whew). Because we were going to be out and about for most of the morning (my friend lives over the north side), I packed a delicious and nutritious lunch for the girls that I thought I'd share with you here.

They shared all of this and more. There are carrots cut like flowers, cheese sticks, pear and peach fruit, tomato, avocado and ham. They also had some rice crackers and a yoghurt each. Oh, and Sophie had some sultanas. An excellent lunch.