Last night saw us at the end of year school concert/graduation. As usual it was a great night, the students and teachers got into the whole theme, which last night happened to be ABBA. There were lil Benny and Bjorns running wild and gorgeous Agnetha and Frida's dancing around the hall along with others dressed in '70's get up, some quite colourful!.
Each grade sang an ABBA hit and a few times the audience got in the groove and sang along lol.

MissFloss


MissMogs and MissTeacher


For us it was a night tinged with sadness as it's our last end of year concert at this school. MissFloss (DD9) was very emotional, lack of sleep probably didn't help either! She has made some wonderful friends and really excelled at school, her report card was outstanding! Miss Mogs (DD8) has come along way in the last 12 months. She was lucky to have the same teacher in the past 2 years and this has really built up her confidence. She's not really into school, i think she goes more for the social aspect lol but her report was glowing.

Today the girls sleepily went to school to say their final goodbyes and took the camera's for extra happy snaps lol. Now we have 6 weeks of late mornings and loads of family fun!

Until next time
-x-

I received a phone call from DH yesterday morning as usual. He was letting me know he'd be home early afternoon for a few hours. Sounded good, i was happy :) He rang me later and said he wasn't coming, he thought it best if he went straight through to his destination so he didn't get held up in traffic and hopefully he'd be home earlier today (Friday). I promptly burst into tears but reassured him all was good, i understood. 45 minutes later he walked through the front door, again i burst into tears lol. I spent the next hour curled up in his arms not wanting to let go. It was a bizzarre feeling but certainly not the 1st time it's happened in the past 10 years.
I realized i had unintentionally manipulated DH to come home. I felt sooo bad and angry at myself but at the same time i was more than happy. As a bonus, the kids got to see him :)

Until next time
Keep your loved ones close
-x-

I'm not sure i achieved too much in the past week. I've had a few could be buyers come and inspect the house so i spent a good deal of the week cleaning and packing. I seem to be able to make more mess while cleaning, not sure if this is just a me thing or if others experience it too.

The christmas tree went up. Only one this year due to alot of things being packed away and put in storage. Normally i'd have 7 trees of all sizes throughout the house with a vast array of decorations on shelves. I've let the kids make decorations for the tree so we have paper angles, paper chains, paper wreaths, all very christmasy :)

The weekend saw us lighting bonfires again. We have 1 shed that is completly emptied of rubbishy timber and anything burnable. It's also cleared of unwanted items, so 1 shed down 4 to go! We visited the hardware store and brought a pile of items to finish odd jobs around the place. If we don't sell we will rent the house out so i need it to have fixtures like curtains, doors, door locks, sink plugs.

DH was bitten by a bull-ant and had another allergic reaction. I wonder if his recent bouts of cellulitis have played havoc with his immune system. He never used to have a problem with insect bites until this year, hmmm.

DD9 came down with tonsilitis. I've had it with illnesses this year, it's a continuous circle of late. DD8 had her earring ripped out by the dog. She was very lucky it didn't split the lobe completely. The dog won't jump on me or DH or DD9 but has a thing for DD8 and DS4. No matter how much we dicipline him he won't listen. He was banished to the kennel for the day.

And last of all we had a visit from DStepS and his girlfriend :)

It's now raining and i have groceries to put away.

Until next time
-x-

A quick posting to share with you some of the produce growing in my garden :)

Apples

Quince

Logan Berries

Grapes

Fig (not yet producing but i'm proud of the tree so i had to share hehe

Tomatoes

Strawberries


Until next time
What's growing in your garden?
-x-

It's got me wondering, if you don't immunise your child, will you or in this case your child, suffer in the long run?

My DS4 had his 1st years worth of immunization shots but none after that. It's not that i have anything against vaccinating my child, my 2 DD's had everything on offer. I think with my DS i was just not on the ball and the longer i left it the more i thought oh it's too late to have it done, i'll not worry about it. Makes me sound like a bad mum but really i'm not! I know of kids who haven't had any immunization and they are healthy and happy. My boy is healthy and happy too, no set back or side effects from not being immunized except for this past week when he caught the Measles!
I didn't know it was the measles until the rash appeared. He'd been feverish with runny nose and weepy eyes and not eating since the early hours of Saturday morning. We'd kept the fluids up with lots of panadol to ease the fever and closely monitered him and because he had a prearranged Dr's appiontment on Tuesday i felt we'd be ok till then to find out what was making him ill. The fever broke on Monday thankfully. We get to to Dr's, he takes one look at him and says "how long has he had the measles?" I'm like "What!?!?" Lift his tshirt and sure enough, he is covered in measles rash, poor kid, i just wanted to cry! Not that anything different could have been done, there is no particular treatment to speed up the recovery, we did all the right things. It makes me wonder though, if DS had the MMR vaccine would he have contracted the measles? My DD's don't seem to have any symptoms of it yet, i would have thought being in such close contact they would have picked it up. They all share the common cold quite well!
I'm now starting to wonder what else he might pick up :(

In other health related news from this household, DH came inside Saturday night after taking a short stroll around the property and said he thought he'd been bitten by a bull-ant as he'd picked up a couple of pieces of timber to put in the rubbish pile. He applied Stingose (stop itch ointment) to his hand where he belived the bite occured as it was reasonably itchy/stingy. After 10 minutes he was soaking both hands in iced water. Then his feet got itchy and he started feeling light-headed so i took him off to the hospital. It's a 35km drive and in that time he started getting hot and his skin was crawling with itchiness. By the time we got to the hospital he had smallish welts on his back and right side. The nurse gave him an antihistamine which settled everything within the hour and diagnosed a spider bite on the right buttocks! Ever heard of the story titled 'The Redback Spider on the Toilet Seat'? Well Dh had experienced it, wether it was a redback we will never know. Just before he came in he stopped at the bathroom and well you know the rest lol. It was easy to laugh after the event but during, it was a little on the scary side. We are now armed with a few hospital strength anithisamines in case something similar should happen but i know DH will be double checking the toilet seat first!!

Until next time
-x-

Ahhh it's been X amount of days since i last blogged - feels like i'm at a bloggers anonymous lol - So many things have been happening but at the same time nothing overly exciting has happened. I've been reading through many blogs and they always seem a lot more interesting then i could ever write. When i started my blog it was like a diary for me, to look back on and see how my family's life had panned out over the months. I do write in a diary as such that sit's beside my bed but it's a very short version of the days events and sometimes i forget to write. Anyways, reading these other blogs made mine feel inadequate. I know, we are all different, do things differently, see life through our own eyes not others, but i was seeing what i thought were my 'elegant tapestry', lol, of family happenings as just plain old daily activities with the odd thought thrown in. Maybe it's envy? Some people lead fascinating lives, rich and wholesome with a carefree attitude, always doing something exciting, wether it be something as simple as creating garden beds or going on an adventure with an inanimate object ( oh the things people do lol, but it's all in fun). Some of the blogs i've read aren't about family at all, it's about the writers creativeness, something that interests me to no end. I thought about turning my blog around to the creative side of me but failed miserably as i just don't have the time right now to be creative. I will in the future add creative musings here and start to add the odd photo i've taken that corresponds with what i have wrote about for a particular day, but for now i feel i will continue on the blogging path i started out on, a diary, just for me.

So, now i have got that off my chest and back into the groove of blogging, my next entry will be published soonish. I won't say hang around and look forward to it lol

Until next time
Blogging requires Passion
-x-

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
We will remember them.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget
We will remember them.

Please take a minute or two today to remember the brave men and woman who fought in the Wars.

-x-