Recently

To be honest, not a great deal has been going on... at least, that sticks out in my memory. We've had the odd trip to Sydney, and visits to friends, but other than that we've just been following our fairly normal routine... doing the shopping... going to mother's group... that sort of thing. So here are a few photos since it's been a while since I've posted.

Enjoying Uncle Jim's playing

 Clowning around with Aunty Meaghan, and helping Grandpa to bring the washing in.

Baby Tania's first Sunday at church - she was born at 29 weeks!

 Fun in the pool - just loves the water!

Asleep on the potty!

Mid-September to Mid-October

I actually sat down to write this post about... ahem... an hour ago... but I got side-tracked on Pinterest. Man, that site is so cool, and has so many fantastic ideas and photos... but if I go there, it's never just a quick visit. I keep having to save amazing ideas for playroom/household organisation, gift ideas, home remedies, frugal recipes, home decor, sewing patterns, kids party ideas, art/craft, Christmas decorating.... you name it!

Anyhow, I haven't posted for a while, but we've just been doing life really. Anthea is 13.5 months, and has just this week started doing a wonky kind of crawl/drag thing - one foot, one knee. It looks really awkward, but she can move around a little more now. Her favourite thing to do is take her shoes and socks off. She also does this fake coughing thing, with her hand over her mouth, which is really cute. Except when it goes on and on when we're doing the groceries, and every person we pass in the trolley gets a demo...

We bought a little kids table and chairs set off eBay for our "lounge room", for when Annie starts needing to have somewhere to draw and colour in and stuff like that. Also, since we don't have room for a dining table (and so Alastair and I just sit on the couch), we can use it for meal times with kids, and still teach table manners and stuff - if we are on the couch, we can have one side of the table, and two chairs fit on the other side. It works in theory. :)

What else since my last post? We've been to two 30th birthday parties (one of which included a trip to Cooma to see dear friends we haven't seen for ages), I've been on two 12-hour shopping trips to Sydney (!) (just for fun, but Christmas shopping 98% done!) (one was a girls day out with Mum and Meaghan, and the other was a fundraiser that a friend's pre-school was doing), Annie's enjoyed seeing more of Aunty Meaghan in the school holidays, and I've done some organising and spring cleaning around the house here. Now photos:

Anthea's birthday morning, still sleepy.

Yum, cake time!

Just chillin' in the pram at the Spring Festival   * * *   Chatting with Grandpa

 All dressed up for Aunty Carly's circus-themed 30th birthday party!

Practicing with the elephant ears headband before the party

School holidays with Aunty Meaghan - Annie loves getting into bed and watching TV in the mornings

 Left: Our little potty-sitter, complete with upside-down dummy! 

Right: Watching Play-School whilst on the potty - good job it has back and arm rests!

Just a quick one

I just wanted to say thanks everyone for your loving concern, thoughts and prayers over the last little while. We're getting there... gradually my energy levels are increasing and I'm feeling more normal. Also on Friday we had good news after Alastair's dad's appointment with his specialist: he's been given the all-clear, the pathology results were fine! Apparently this specialist has never seen anything like what Peter had and said he's a very lucky man. It's clear that it was a load on Peter's shoulders, as he's much more chirpy now, which is good to see. :)

Alastair shared this article by Tim Challies with me earlier, and I thought it was really insightful. I look forward to the day when I can demonstrate what I consider to be "real" hospitality (the kind I would be able to show if I had my own house, with more than two rooms in it!)... but it's been a good thing to think about even in our granny flat situation. :)

http://www.challies.com/christian-living/inconvenienced-by-inconvenience?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And lastly I just want to share a couple of Puritan prayers I came across the other day:

Unmask to me sin's deformity,
   that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it...
Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin
   lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed, 
      as in the greatness of the person sinned against.

Grant me never to lose sight of
   the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
   the exceeding righteousness of salvation
   the exceeding glory of Christ,
   the exceeding beauty of holiness,
   the exceeding wonder of grace. 

In a fog

Not sure exactly what I want to write here... it's been a strange few weeks...

I guess I'll just give you the short version.

August:

• Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th we went out to Gilgandra and spent the weekend helping Alastair's brother and sister-in-law get their house cleaned up and ready to put on the market. It was a massive weekend, I came home exhausted and aching in all sorts of places I never knew I had.
• Monday 27th I did a pregnancy test and got a positive result - I was 5 weeks pregnant, and we were so excited! Baby due 30th April 2013.
• Tuesday 28th - rang the hospital to book in to the Wollongong Hospital Midwives Group Program. If you don't get in early you miss out.
• Wednesday 29th went to the Dr and had all the routine blood tests you get done when you find out you're pregnant... but then that afternoon started bleeding.
• Thursday 30th - Anthea's 1st birthday. Went to ladies bible study in the morning and asked them to pray for me and the new baby because I was worried I was having a miscarriage.
• Friday 31st - had to drop Alastair in town early, then dropped Annie off at my mother's group before going to pick Alastair's dad up from a Dr's appointment (he had been in hospital with a gall bladder attack the week before)... turns out he'd had some bad news: there was a tumour on the gall bladder which has attached itself to his liver (which is 3.4cm - having grown from 3mm a couple of months ago), as well as a cyst in one of his kidneys, so he's waiting for a specialist appointment now. Then I got back to mother's group 10 mins before it ended and fell to pieces, thankfully in a place where the people know me well. Alastair came home at lunchtime to look after me and Annie, as we were pretty sure it was a miscarriage.
• Saturday 1st/Sunday 2nd - a quiet weekend thankfully, with Father's Day as well. My parents and sister came down for lunch, so that was really nice.

Most of September has been a bit of a blur, (my birthday included), miscarriage confirmed, Anthea's 12 month immunisations... all sorts of stuff. Such a strange time, with such a lot of mixed feelings and emotions. It feels like a fog.... a surreal sort of feeling. I wanted to talk about it, but didn't want to hear any more of the trite "your baby was not meant for this world" or "perhaps it was deformed/handicapped" comments which people seem to think are comforting. I do have a few lovely friends who actually just listened when I needed to talk though, so that is a blessing. And now life goes on...

So soon?

Have decided to do a little catch-up post. It doesn't feel like long since I last was here, but it's actually been 10 days since the photo post, and 14 since I did that newsy one.

There's not been that much going on really, we've just been "doing life"... getting through teething and colds and all that kind of thing. Speaking of colds... and poor little runny crusty noses... :(

I mentioned the group project baby quilt I was co-ordinating at church, and how it was getting all big and complicated - well the top is finally all stitched up and finished, and one of the ladies is doing the quilting now. Am so pleased to have that over with! It didn't turn out too badly, though I liked it better before the outside border went on.

Alastair is well, and busy at work... then he comes home and does whatever needs to be done around here without complaining, so I am very blessed. He went up to the Collingwood game (which the Swans lost, so he wasn't a very happy boy when he got home), but now we're on top of the ladder, so he's happy again. :)

On Friday last, I left Annie for the longest time since the day she was born when they whisked me away to theatre. It was stocktake day at the pharmacy I used to work at, and they offered me a few hours of work. Mum came and looked after Anthea for me from 9am-1.30pm, and by all accounts they had a lovely time together and my daughter behaved herself beautifully. :)

We stayed with mum and dad on Saturday night for the first time in ages. It was nice, and would have been even nicer if Annie had made an effort to sleep for more than 1-1.5 hours at a time during the whole time. But she's teething, and we had colds, so what can you expect really I suppose. Friends were having their 10 week old gorgeous Isabel baptised the next day, so it was a good excuse to go back to my old church and catch up with people. In the afternoon, I got to have a little sleep (!) and Mum took Anthea for a walk in the pram she bought when I was born... it's doing well for nearly 30 years old, don't you think? :)

 

We are going out to Gilgandra again this weekend with Alastair's dad and his brother Ashley, to help Joel (another of Alastair's brothers) and his wife Katherine get their house ready to put on the market - kind of a little family working bee... should be fun. I'm planning to take a big chocolate cake... :)

Sometimes, towards the end of the day, when the bubba is getting tired and cross and everything is getting too much just before Daddy gets home from work, we take a little trip up to Jim's end of the house and chat to him for a while. It's so lovely having this grandfather-figure just at the end of the hall, who is never too busy to stop what he's doing to talk to us, or to bounce Annie on his knee, or to let her have a "play" on his piano...

Only other thing to add, is that Aunty Meaghan took a very cute photo of Annie on the weekend, where she looks like she's breakdancing - I hope she posts it so you can see. :)

Photos!

 It was the end of June last time I posted photos, so I think it's high time for the next installment!

 

Left: Aunty Meaghan is going to kill me for posting this photo, but I think early morning snuggles are so cute!

Right: "Look Mummy, I ripped up the Kmart catalogue... that's what you said to do, isn't it?"

Our beautiful girl - June 2012

 Annie has taken off - she's walking all around the furniture and walls, so up went the safety gates we found on eBay!

Cuddles with our dear friend Mrs. Woollard

 Left: Bathtime is Annie's favourite time of the day... and since this photo she's been learning to stay sitting down whilst in the bath. :) We just put the baby bath in the bottom of the shower recess - she loves it!

Right: Daddy and his baby watching TV. :)

 Cute ladybird dress from Nanna Glen!

 

Left: Asleep in the pram during one of our walks at the beach

Right: "Hey Mum, look at this cool new walking frame I found!"

 

Getting dry with Daddy after a bath

 

Discovering the board books 

 

New drink bottle with a straw from Eli's mummy, Jade.

Hmm... how does 

it work? 

 

Left: If I cross my eyes and concentrate really reeeeeally hard... 

Right: Yay! It worked!

 

The rag doll I've just finished for Anthea's 1st birthday - generally pleased with how it turned out. (She does have a nose - it's just a little stitch, which didn't come out in the photo!)

I think the way the hair is done is my favourite part of this pattern!

And with that, you're basically up to date! Hope you enjoyed these pics. xo

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. :)