Post titles are so hard to think of...

Meaghan reminded me today that I hadn't posted for a while... but I didn't realise that it's been nearly a month already!

So...

Anthea's vomiting bug is over and well and truly in the past. Hurrah! :) Now if we could just get these top teeth cut through! The bottom two came through no worries, but it seems that the top ones are causing her a bit of grief. One is through, and the other is bulging...  has been for about two weeks... but other than that, she's well and happy.

Oh! Stop Press!!! Amazing, brilliant, wonderful, exciting news! About a week ago, she began to open her mouth when I was trying to feed her! I have to go back a bit with this story... if you're not interested, skip to the next paragraph. :) It was around the beginning of July and I was at a loss as to what to do with Annie's solids/eating/etc, so after speaking on the phone with a Tresillian nurse, I'd cut her feeds down from 7/8 a day to 4/5... but it wasn't helping. Then I went to our local Family Care Cottage, and had a very encouraging visit with a lovely Mothercraft nurse. Turns out, that was the day that Annie came down with the vomiting bug, so it wasn't until probably 10 days later that I was able to actually put into practice the advice that she'd given me. And that advice was that I needed to cut her down to 2 feeds a day - morning and night (plus a 10pm dream feed if I wanted, for my own comfort). Whoa. It was just enormous, trying to implement that advice, and for two weeks Annie still refused food - even though she was going 12 hours between feeds. Until last week, when all of a sudden she decided to give up and just opened her mouth. I was almost at breaking point - it was doing my head in. So praise the Lord, I was able to hold out just those extra few days, otherwise I'd have probably gone back to 4/5 feeds a day and we still wouldn't have got anywhere! Now she's eating lunch and dinner every day, will open her mouth for mashed potato, pumpkin, peas, bolognaise sauce, chicken stirfry with rice, and yoghurt. We're still working on breakfast... it's a battle. Hmm... wondering if this is a foretaste of what's to come, as far as the battle of the wills... we'll definitely be praying for wisdom in channeling it in the right direction!

I can hardly believe that she'll be turning one on the 30th! It's so exciting - I feel like in these last couple of weeks she's really started to change from a baby into a toddler... she's so cute! But I won't go on and on. Photos next time!

Last week we hosted our home group's bible study, which was great, because it meant I was able to join in. Usually Alastair just goes. But everyone came to our house, and we had the most people we've ever had in our little lounge room - 13! It was a bit squishy, but we managed - thanks to the kindness and good humour of everyone involved. Oh, and I think that the copious quantities of caramel slice helped to make everyone happy. :)

I've had a lot of trouble with my back recently too... which always makes life as a mummy that bit more interesting. It's funny to look back and think about what may have landed me in bed for a day or two a year or so ago - whether it be a flu or a back problem - and then fast forward to the present... I've really learned to "suck it up" as they say! Which is a good thing I think... I was a bit of a light-weight before.

At our ladies bible study, we are going through a book called "Lies Women Believe" by Nancy DeMoss. We are only a couple of chapters in, but it seems good so far. Well, mostly. I guess it's one of those books where you take the helpful bits and leave the rest. Like, for example, the author starts each chapter with what she imagines an excerpt from Eve's diary would look like... which I don't really go for and don't think is necessary. But she has made some good points in the chapters we've studied, which has provoked some interesting discussion.

Today I changed my schedule around. Recently I've been stuck in a bit of a rut, where I write myself a list of things to do, but then I lose interest, procrastinate and get almost nothing done. So today I divided my day up into time slots of Annie's awake/asleep times, and set myself one or two jobs to do in each period. It worked, and my to-do list was so much more achievable! :) Over and above doing the usual washing, dishes and cooking tea, I managed to plant the strawberries out, wash the towels, clean the kitchen sink, get my ironing done, and go for a walk with Annie along the beach path, from Woonona to Bulli and back, which was a great idea on such a lovely sunny day!

There's a lot more I could write... like about helping our Iranian friends set up their budget to keep track of their finances... like about the group project baby quilt I'm co-ordinating with the church ladies which has turned out bigger than Ben Hur (through no fault of my own - grrr)... or about how I cleaned my house last week and ohmygoodness it needs to be done again already.... or the lovely cross stitch I got inspired to start...

But it's getting late, and this post is already too long... and if I don't post this now, it'll get saved as yet another draft....

By the way, I've been wondering... what do YOU, my readers, want to hear about when I post? Are my long posts hard to read and sometimes you don't even bother? Honest answers please. :)