Meal Planning Monday...

Well technically it is 'Tuesday' but it's still the middle of the night (and I fell asleep earlier..) and Meal Planning Tuesday just doesn't have the same ring to it! So here is what's on our dinner agenda this week!  Cupcake Monday due to my crazy cleaning urges of late has been delayed until tomorrow!

Monday -       Beef Stroganoff (My ultimate favourite!!!)

Tuesday -      Homemade Mini Pizza's!

Wednesday - Chicken Taco's using chicken breast & Soft taco shells.
                   (So looking forward to these..)

Thursday -    Beef Provencale Casserole - so rich and tomato infused!

Friday  -       Night off from cooking - YAY!

Saturday -    If the weather is fine a BBQ, if not, Spaghetti Bolognaise..

Sunday -      Roast of the week.. (ummmm.. Chicken??)
                   followed by Apple Crumble and custard.

Now the meal planning is taken care of for the week, shopping tomorrow will be much easier!  

Oh and if you've got a little time spare, feel free to check out my new blog page which you can access across the top tabs, 'Before Chaos and After Organisation'..

It's the Little Things, gifts kids give to make your heart smile xo

Its the little things each days that make your heart soar.. I have been truly blessed with an adorable little man who loves to leave me little handmade surprises of cuteness, he has always done this and although my storage box of all of his necklaces, paintings, drawings, craft ventures and gifts is HUGE, I love that he is so giving and thoughtful, it really does make my heart smile..

He has also constructed this wall of his own artwork, drawing and handwriting that he is proud of and I was happy to let him pop it outside his door. Im not usually one for attaching things to walls, but seeing his pride in creating and presenting his work, how could I say no? Im not too sure what we'll do when we paint the walls of the dining room, I guess Ill find a cute little cork board for him to display things on outside his walls. They also have one in their room, but it's much nicer im sure to have it all out on display! :)

The other day before I returned to work, he created this gorgeous little sticker holder for me to take along to school for my student's rewards. After a tough first day back, it was so lovely to sit and stare at this very thoughtful gift he had made me during my lunchbreak and smile.. smile for all of his thoughtfulness and care.. He even filled it up with his own stickers and prizes from his room.  When I got home that afternoon he wanted to know how many stickers I gave out.. he was so proud 

 And I always am!

Where I hope to Holiday this Year..

I've taken to the web for blog inspiration and found a site called Bloggy Mums, which has laid out a blog dare with various topics for daily blogging inspiration today's topic caught my eye as its something iv been thinking of lately.. a holiday *bliss*

With a baby on the way in 21 weeks or so, a holiday is a top priority for our family before the impending arrival and I thought it would be nice to return to our holiday spot from last year, Stradbroke Island.. Stradbroke was such a nice holiday for us, such a change of pace - even with 4 kids in tow, it was sheer bliss (which is saying something! as some of our holidays have been horrendous).  We took long daily walks, swims at the beaches, watched the whales on the horizon (and dolphins, turtles and stingrays) ate gelato, BBQ'd on seafood and genuinely had some great bonding moments as a family. 

It is my goal in the next couple of months to return back to this gorgeous gorgeous place.. and then return each year after that.. this year we are thinking of even throwing a camping trip in whilst we are over there, just to mix it up a little.  If I could be anywhere, I would be there right now! Wont be too long and we'll be soaking it all up again.. xo



Happy Valentines Day 2011

I think that Valentines Day has always held a soft spot in my heart & has been a day that I have always been happy to celebrate. I don't know if this is because I haven't really been single before on Valentines Day or because any day that is a day to express the love you have for those around you, is alright by me!

My Son was born on Valentines Day 6 years ago, which was such a lovely Valentines gift, my best so far (even diamonds wouldn't compare..) Usually my husband and I don't exchange gifts until the evening for this very reason, so we don't take away from the little man's birthday. But this year, I decided to include the kids into Valentines Day, as they too, get just as excited about it and after all, Valentines Day is about 'Love' overall.. our family of love.

So this year I bought all the kids a chocolate rose, I thought they were so cute (and tasty) and at only $1.25 each from Kmart, a bargain too! And a block of choccie, laid it onto their place mat with a handmade card and some Valentines Day themed balloons attached to the back of each of their chairs.  A simple gesture, but their little eyes lit up when they saw it in the morning.. It was nice to see them reading their cards and messages and sharing their chocolates around, my eldest stepson even gave me the chocolate rose back as a gift to me, very touching. 

That evening, being my son's birthday and Valentines Day, we went to see Gnomeo and Juliet at the cinema which was  a nice touch for both occasions we thought. 

For Hubby, I left out a little dangling heart at his coffee station for the morning (knowing full well i wouldn't be awake) and a very daggy, but heartfelt bag of lolly banana's..

We didn't exchange gifts in the evening this year as I fell asleep quite early on in the evening after the movie (who said your energy comes back at 12 weeks pregnant! 16 weeks and still exhausted!) And I awoke to find a delicious box of Lindt Desert Chocolates (how very evil) and a gorgeous card on my side table, how sweet.

So that's Valentines Day for another year.. but thankfully in our household it doesn't mean the love stops there :) 

Happy 6th Birthday Indigo! xo

Dear Indi,

6 years ago, I was handed the most precious bundle of joy.. Even before they passed you over the curtain, upon hearing your first cry, as the happy tears rolled down my cheeks - it was love at first sight and my love for you has grown each second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year since the 14th February 2005.  You are truly an amazing little man who is growing into a person Mummy is very proud of.  I love that you are caring, that you think of other's, that you have such a passion for learning and doing well at school, that you are funny and make us laugh with your infectious giggle!, that you have your differences and that overall, you are you..

On your 6th birthday you enjoy Scooby Doo, Ben 10, playing your DS and Wii, digging in the dirt/rocks, drawing, making craft and exploring - your favourite toy is Maxi and your favourite food is BBQ Pork. You have great friends at school,  you can nearly count to 200, read and write well for a little person who has just started out in the world of schooling & I love love love that you want to hold Mummy's hand still, sleep in our bed and snuggle up with Mummy.. after all your only little once & Mummy doesn't mind if this goes on forever xo

So on your sixth birthday and throughout your 7th year of life, remember that we love you so so much, that we are so proud of you, to have fun and to keep dancing to the rhythm of your own drum - no matter what anyone tells you, you truly are amazing <3  xoxo

Lots of Love

Mummy xoxoxox

Things to achieve in February..

With February now in full swing, I thought it time to outline my goals for the month;

1. Head back to work for the year.

2. Print out my Project Life Photographs so far for 2011 and organise my entire album.

3. Use my 2nd album to catch up on Indigo's scrapbooking (I have seen this done in some other blogs, check out the gorgeous Sunny Side Up blog to see a great example of this in action.

4. Finish tweaking the routine I have in place and stick to it as best I can.. I have a routine now for morning, night and in between that seems to be working wonderfully (more on that another time..)

5. Show my little man an excellent time for his 6th Birthday.. this year we are having 2 parties & a day off school to have some birthday fun.. why not? your only 6 once right? This week will be all about party planning in this house..

6. Wash the car

7. Keep up the gardening.. its been so lovely pottering in the garden in the past couple of weeks..

8. Keep cleaning out the 'nursery' - no longer labelled 'spare room'.

9. PAINT (Note to hubby) the bathroom & laundry!

and lucky last...

10. Have fun!

So they are my 10 goals for February.. Im sure there will be other goals to accompany them but at this stage I think that list is a good start for now and will keep me busy.

For the next week or so I am also going to take part in the '14 Days of Love' challenge outlined on 'Our Life on a Marquee Blog' which sets the challenge to  do one thing each day to show someone how much you love them - such a lovely idea in the lead up to Valentines Day. She has some great printables on her blog also, which are cute for Valentines Day.. so check them out and keep watching this space for my first item tomorrow!

14 Weeks Pregnant - The Story thus far..

Good morning world, its kind of early.. Iv been up since 4am.. which is usual for me lately, but unusual for me generally..  Why is it usual of me lately? Because at a little over 14 weeks pregnant, 8pm seems like my new bedtime, hence between 4-5am must be my wake-up time! thanks crazy body clock!!! It would be nice to get an extra couple of hours at night to get into my scrapbooking, project life, TV or even blogging, but instead, Im sooo out to it, nothing can stir me.  I must say I feel far more refreshed for all of the extra sleep though, so I wont complain.  It has also been quite handy with the school routine, because i'm up so early - we are never late!  I'm sure all of that will change when the little Miss or Mr arrives on the scene and everything starts and ends in chaos! So we'll relish it whilst we can..

As many know we have a blended family, I have 1 - he has 3, together we will have 5 (although we both say we have 4/5 otherwise its way too hard to explain)  So this is technically baby number 2 for me  (although that never quite sounds right, but baby number 5 doesn't sound right either)  so i'll stick with baby number 2.. tonight I wrote out part 1 of my baby journal on a forum I frequent which will catch my blog readers up to date so far on my pregnany ride, so I'll cut and paste from that;  Hopefully in the next day or two im motivated enough to plug in the scanner and put up a ultrasound piccy or 2. So yes, that is why my blogging has been a bit lax of late.. cause you can't blog whilst your asleep!

Story so far...

"At this point in time, I am a little over 14 weeks along.. with roughly 24 weeks to go until my cesarean date

(if thats the way I choose to go as things progress) as im booked in for the 26th July, which seems altogether waaay too close! LOL. But im sure, as I get bigger, it wont seem close enough.

So far my pregnancy has been lovely, I was anxious at first.. nearly fainted when i saw the double lines! Came out crying, hubby told me I wasn't meant to be sad.. that it was a happy time etc, but all I could do was worry.. What was I worrying about? To me it was a mixture of things, many of which i'm still worried about.. I was worried first and foremost for my DS, how was this going to change his life? I was worried for my health (mainly upon delivery..lol, i know panicking 9 months before..so typical of me!) and of course I was worried about miscarriage and the impending '12 week mark wait' ahead of me.. which at 5 weeks, seemed so far away. (Mind you I don't think that fear dissappears at 12 weeks, it just lessens). I probably had a gazillion more worries going through my head at this point too, hence the crying.. but in the end, I allowed myself a smile.. (much to DH's relief.. as he thought I was regretting my decision..)

We didn't tell anyone straight away, moreso kept it our little secret and slowly over the next week or so, began to tell people the news including the kids.. we told the kids on the night we went to get our Santa photo's.. after a nice dinner & night out, with the carols playing in the car, we told them that a baby was on the way.. They were all excited & started the 'what if's' pretty much immediately.. What if - it's a girl, a boy, siamese twins (wt??).. They wanted to know the in's and out's of everything when was it due, where will it sleep, will it go every 2nd weekend to it's father's house (can't half tell we have a blended family hey!?) But on the whole they were very excited. I was trying to read my DS's face for a sign, something that reassured me he was going to be ok, and although he looked a little confused by such big news.. the next day he asked if he could spread the news far and wide and said he was very happy, so that was a big relief to me.. phew.. For weeks my little man told me what to and not to eat (like a little doctor) and would ask "Can you eat that Mum, is it good for bubba?" LOL. When we got scans done in the first week of school, he also took them along for show and tell... some of the kids in his class asked "What colour eyes does it have" he came home rolling his eyes, "Don't they know you can't tell that yet" he said.

So Kids all told.. Parents next.. both set's happy.. which is always a relief I guess.. and then the remainder of the family followed... So everyone was notified by Christmas'time. Usually I feel like it jinx's things before 12 weeks, but its such hard news to keep quiet.

I kept worrying about my symptoms.. were they too little..I wasn't sick as such, so some days I felt completely normal and would have to remind myself I was carrying a little person. The only time I felt queasy as such was about 4-5pm, I could always tell the time without looking at the clock, from this feeling.. but it was never enough to keep me down as such. I had a similar feeling with DS, queasiness.. so the obstetrician said, this appears to be my bodies 'morning sickness'. I initially worried that maybe I wasn't 'sick enough' but after a few scans that showed everything to be completely normal.. I felt relief.. and lucky!

Although the tiredness, how crazy! I am usually quite the insomniac, staying up waaay past midnight and into the early hours.. but after the initial adrenalin had passed of wanting to jump back up at night and check out things online about pregnancy etc, I found myself falling asleep when getting my DS to bed each night.. whether that be at 7:30, 8 or later, I would doze off and that is the last you would see of me that evening except when I would stagger zombie like from his room back to my bed in the middle of the night.. lately I haven't even got that far, I sleep all night through in his room. Poor DH, lucky he has study to keep him occupied at the moment, because i'm not much company at night. Hoping that my energy will return soon enough so that I can watch some TV at night or even hold a conversation! (intelligent one, apparently my tired ramblings are quite funny..)

I had a scan at 6 weeks.. and a scan at 10 weeks (in the obs office) and then again at 13 weeks.. all was where it should be. Although I panicked about having an anterior placenta, because they say it can lead to more blood loss during a ceasar.. but then I read that DS's placenta was also anterior, which calmed me a little.. I am now going to panick only when im told to panick.. and at no other time. I feel that philosophy might help rather than my usual panick at every little thing logic!

So that is the story thus far.. here I sit at a little over 14 weeks.. looking forward to my next ob visit at 15 1/2 weeks, feeling baby soon enough and the 18-20 scan which I soooo need to find out if Im to buy up pink or blue as I need to fulfil my shopping urges!!!!"

Well enough about babies for now, tomorrow my post will be about getting into organisation mode around here, which has been on my agenda for the past couple of weeks.. Ill show you some of the projects im tackling and the progress I am making :)