the latest obsession is baking

YUM!!

What a week!

This week I ironed my last grey school shirt. This time 9 years ago I was preparing to send my first born off to "big school". I couldn't bear to put him in a nasty grey shirt. A couple of years later Dimples followed his big bro to school. No.1 son duly graduated to high school and yesterday Dimples followed suit, hence the end of the grey shirts. Where did those 9 years go?

The whole school joined to form an arch which the year 6 kids walked under as their final farewell. It is an emotional day for the teachers, the parents, the graduating class and their friends in lower grades. Even the general assistant came out to mark the occasion.

To my surprise Dimples came out of the arch sobbing his little heart out but it didn't last long and don't tell him I said so ;)

Talking of school, the young 'uns have had a great year. No.1 son has been promoted to the extension classes for English and Science. He also had a glowing report which uses all those cliches I usually didn't qualify for: consistent, hard working, polite, talented .....

to top it off he was invited to join the school stage band.

Dimples finished his primary schooling with the admiration of his teachers because he didn't run away from school once this year! His peers voted him "drama queen" and he accepted graciously. That's progress.

The Princess received an award for consistent and conscientious effort. Her report was also glowing with praise.

The Tomboy was awarded for citizenship, her academic effort was good .....

all together I couldn't be more pleased.

The Princess complained of a sore mouth on Thursday night, by Friday she obviously had an abcess. She seemed to be going ok so I told her I would make a dentist appointment for the weekend and continued with my day. Half an hour later she was on the phone with a query about pain relief. The call to the dentist was moved forward, she was relievd of the problematic tooth and I was relieved of $100.

After feeling generally odd for a week or so I took myself off to the chiro for an extra appointment today. "Kylie, what have you done??" she asked me. I don't know what I did, only that her response made me think that at least I wasn't imagining this oddness I had been struggling with. She will probably never fix all of my oddness but I like to think I've been left with the endearing bit!

Finally, I went to the hairdressers for a decent colour treatment. It was a new hairdresser and she didn't listen to a word I said but she did alright with the colour and to the delight of my girls she blow dried my hair straight. I have never had straight hair. Ever. It's kind of nice actually, I could get used to it.

Don't forget that I'm giving $1 to Anglicare for every comment you make. Flattering, thoughtful, cheery, intelligent, even inane rubbish will benefit someone so go on......

write me!

thanks #9

These are my boys with their new cousin.

and my girls with his sister

I can't make up my mind which aspect of this I am thankful for, the tenderness of the boys which is heartbreakingly sweet, the joie de vivre of the girls, my fondness for my own cousins.....

here i am being boring....

it was a case of showing a picture or telling you how i'm desperate for chocolate but don't have any........

i like this photo, even though i was talking at the time, because it clearly shows that my forehead wrinkles occasionally smooth away.

it was taken at the district public schools music festival, where my cherubs danced.

A trip down memory lane

This is a tenor horn. I tried to learn to play one when I was a teenager. It didn't work.
The bandmaster rapped my knuckles with a pencil because I was so dreamy. (I've forgiven him that, he's actually really cool) My Dad used to go red and hypertensive with the effort of getting me to get anything right, then he would shake his head in despair and thank his lucky stars my brother had talent.
These days the Princess has started to learn and last night I just couldn't resist. I had to have a blow. (Yes, that's what I said, snigger and then accept it as the technical term, right?)
What a blast!
My hands still knew how to work the valves and my mouth still knew how to make a note!
After some terrible noises and air rushing fruitlessly through the instrument I managed to play Twinkle, Twinkle little star and the C scale!
Who would have thought I could do that? I could barely manage it when I was practising!
The kids told me I can't play, I told them I thought I was playing (allow me some poetic licence here, please)
No, I'm not going to take up tenor horn, the world doesn't need my music but it was fun for a few minutes.

One down, One to go!

I'm Grateful.....

This week I have determined that I should collect all of my awards. When I think I have done that I'll let you know and if I have forgotten any you can let me know.

Bindi graciously bestowed this pretty award on me so I thought I'd make it true by practicing some gratitude.

Today I'm grateful for

• the sound of rain outside
• a job that allows me some flexibility
• a warm bed
• people to laugh with
• enough money for all that we need and much of what we want
• good health
• a beautiful bunch of dahlias on the coffee table
• the Tomboy's relentless joie de vivre
• the Princess's regular gifts to me....little letters & drawings and such like. The Tomboy will be offended if I don't recognise her offerings here, they're also wonderful.
• Dimples' general sweetness and exceptional potential
• No.1 son for our shared humour and his consistent appreciative eating of whatever I put in front of him
• the unwavering love of my "original" family

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
Maori Proverb

Biting off More than One person could Possibly Chew, Knowing it & doing it Anyway

Remember how I told you that I went shopping with the girls on Saturday?
I wanted to get them some good winter clothes, something they might wear to go to church or other semi-formal events. (I can't tell you what other events but you know, somewhere that their favoured jeans wouldn't be suitable)
There was NOTHING! No, nothing. Not at the local shopping centre, anyway. Everything was so cheap looking. Cheap looking clothes that would have produced cheap looking girls. Even the more expensive stuff looked cheap. Does no-one wear nice clothes? Do young girls all look like tramps? Was I at the wrong places? Or do I have unrealistic expectations? I just don't know.
We trawled the shops and I grew increasingly frustrated. Eventually I said to them "Let's go look at pattern books" They didn't want me to make clothes. "We'll just look" I said.
I've never been much of a sewer and it must be fourteen years since I last did anything but kids trackpants but we went in anyway.
I opened a Burda book, I always liked the Burda patterns, and found a pattern for a dress I thought I could possibly make. The girls thought they could possibly wear the dress. Miracle of miracles!
Now to buy some fabric. The Princess picked a black woollen flannel, embroidered in red. It was a very adult fabric. "Wouldn't you like something more colourful?" No, she would not like something more colourful.
Then I asked the Tomboy "What fabric do you want?"
"I don't care, I just wanna get out of here" I was inclined to agree.
"Do you want the same as your sister? do you really want to do that whole twin thing?"
"I really don't care" says my Tomboy "I just want to go"

The deal was done.
Now I have to make the dresses.
I might need to do a whole lot less blogging!

The Princess and The Tomboy

Overheard in Utopia

I suspect I overheard the end of an escalating exchange with this one:
The Princess "PULL them UP"
The Tomboy "NO"
The Princess "EVERYone can see your butt crack"
The Tomboy "Only if you're looking down my pants!"

To Do List

Someone out in cyberspace is publishing other people's to-do-lists and doing very nicely with it. Apparently they give an interesting insight into the mind of the writer.....so here's mine. It's in no particular order and off the top of my head. Analyse away.

• Be the best Mum I can be
• Travel
• Read more
• See more movies
• Eat out more
• Wear great clothes
• Go to the dentist
• Vacuum
• Get a haircut

OOLF: My terrific girls played in an Oz Tag Gala day yesterday and their team, from a small school (280 students) came runners up. They were second only to a school of about 800. YAY.