A Candle for Isabella

A dear and close friend recieved a beautiful gift last Thursday. Her first grandchild, Isabella was born 7 weeks early and entered the world with complications and a fighting spirit. Izzy is doing well but could use a pinch of Prayer Power. Please, if you have the time, the inclination and the faith, let Him know that we down here need this little girl and love her dearly. Help her on her road to recovery...please.
Cindy
(hugs Maree)

A Tropical Winter Garden...ie Silent Sunday!

Cindy

p.s. Ok, I couldn't do a wordless Wednesday but a Silent Sunday...!

A Farm Girl at Heart

I grew up on a farm. Actually I grew up on many farms, piggeries, massive properties, the works. It was always my job to look after the chickens. Of course, as a kid, any time not spent playing was wasted so I hated it.


I was also a lonely teenager who lived in a small country town where most of my friends lived outside of town and I had no transport, therefore no friends whom I saw after school or at the weekend. And there I found my first love of chooks. I loved their orderly lives, I loved that they would take any bit of garbage and turn it into fresh eggs. I loved that mine would come running when I called out 'chook, chook, chicKENS!' I loved seeing them delve with much pleasure into table scraps. I loved the feel of their feathers and the sheen they had in sunlight.


And stupidly enough, I learnt to understand how they worked in a flock. I learnt how to round them up and get them to go where I wanted them to go. Chooks are a bit like sheep, they follow the leader and the slightest body movement changes their direction. My kids don't understand this and it frustrates me. And my kids also don't get that chooks need food to produce eggs and clean water to stay healthy...this too frustrates me.


But all in all, I just love having them around. I love to indulge my passion for chooks by spoiling them with a new layer of mulch or some oats in their food. I love that they are undemanding, that they make the coolest noises and they are just plain pretty. I love that they can live in small backyards as well as they can in huge open barns. I know, its strange but thats the kinda girl I am...

The girls enjoying the "muck billy"

Did I mention how much I love black chooks??

The girls having a gossip "Did you see Mabels egg this morning it was sooo tiny"

"Yes, I knowwwwwww"

And the ultimate gift, farm fresh warm eggs. They are all natural and aren't dyed.

This was going to be one of those wordless Wednesday posts but HA! I couldn't shut up if you paid me too!

Cin
p.s. hugs to Gen on the loss of her Nanni. Chin up chook!

Diagnosis

Well, Aidens appointment was moved up with Dr S. After discussing our concerns and having him talk to Aiden, he agrees that he has some form of Aspergers. There are many differing things that make up an Aspie child, Aidens is that he can't handle crowds, says inappropriate things at the wrong time and in the wrong context, he is brilliant at some things and quite bad at others, he has concentration issues, clumsiness, is easily distracted and he has alot of trouble making friends. Forty years ago he would have been labelled as quirky or eccentric. Now we know there is a reason for it.

Treatment at the moment is more maintenance than a cure: there is no cure for Aspergers. We are working with him on channelling his behaviour, thinking before he speaks, removing himself from confronting situations etc. We will be putting him on fish oil to help with a healthy brain and in a few months time Dr S will have another look at the situation. We are also waiting for the school to send in their information as well.

Its all coming together, now we know what we are dealing with! Now comes the learning!

Cheers,
Cin

Birthdays and Louses

Happy 11th Birthday Caitie!!!

So, in our household, if its your birthday you get to choose what you eat all day. Caitie decided she wanted pancakes for breakfast and I decided to overindulge her tastebuds with a 3 stack of pancakes. The first stack had melted chocolate on it, the second stack had marshmallows and the third stack had more chocolate with sprinkles in an 11. It was grossly yummy with enough sugar to light an entire city! Teamed with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and sprinkles, she was one happy kid!

Gotta love the huge amount of marshmallow that was dripping down her face.

Her main present was one she recieved almost a year ago now. It was her very first breeding queen, a devon rex called Ch Leetamy Dreamcatch Me. Muu and Caitie sleep together and they really do love each other. It is my tradition that I give her jewellary for her birthday and this year it was a necklace and pendant with the words Special Daughter on it. And she recieved a Pea Pod...ok its not really called that but it has to be the smallest ipod I have ever seen! It holds around 1000 songs and Caitlin has it glued to her ears as we speak!

***************

On another completely different subject....Smallish Bear has headlice. He has had headlice for the last two weeks and I simply cannot get rid of them. I have been conditioning and combing till my hands are numb but on Saturday night I pulled out at least a dozen adults, totally grossing me out. Then last night, I went through again and there were more...at which point I freaked out completely and reached for the clippers.
No sooner was this photo taken than Aiden decided he too needed a crew cut and off his locks came. Checking this morning I was amazed to see eggs still in Little Bears head, so I spent some time picking and popping them..ewwww.

Normally, using both shampoo and conditioner laced with eucalytpus oil or tea tree oil and lavender oil and then combing them out knocks them on the head but this time it called for drastic action!

Now I have two nekkid headed boys running around!

"Dam" Another Holiday!

We have a large amount of insanity in our household and decided to go camping with a good friend and her two kids...in winter....it was hell....

BUT, there were highlights and I choose to focus on those, so here is our holiday in pictures!
We went camping at Somerset Dam. It rained on the first night and all the first day which was a little depressing but it was lovely going to bed listening to the rain creating a soft tattoo on the roof.



On the second day we were there, Conor got sick and tired of waiting for someone to push him on his bike...so he took off, literally! By the end of the trip he was pedalling around like a maniac. Now he is home, the kids territory has been extended and they are allowed to ride outside, sans parents! Helmets are a must at home though....


The wildlife were amazing! The very first night we were marauded by mice, pillaged by possums and bombarded with birds! There were bunnies and plovers and magpies and tawny frog mouth owls and whipperwills and butcherbirds and possums and mice and..and... lots of critters!


A very pretty nest of plover eggs we found, on the ground, in the middle of the picnic area. The eggs were gone the next day, I would guess they were plundered by possums.

This cheeky character spent his time either hassling the girl possums for sex or hassling us for food. He was an expert at stealing loaves of bread, his tally at the end of the trip was two whole loaves and numerous part loaves! He was also an expert at breaking our heavily fortified barriers and pilfering food from the tent. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Possums are exPerts at anything starting with P! Plundering, pilfering, pillaging and peeing! Yep, he even pee'd on one of the large boxes we used as a pantry (see that darn P again). He enthalled our neighbours who consisted of two families, one of which was full of English tourists.

This glorious bird is a tawny frogmouth and there is currently a bit of a mice plague happening out that-a-way at the moment. The first night I went to do my teeth and spat my toothpaste out and just missed a widdle mouse. He had the longest whiskers! The owl was well fed and beautiful. We also saw one in Sydney as well and I love these birds!

Speaking of lovely birds, the magpies have always been my favourites. They are polite most of the time and, after they have been given some food, they always reward you with their unique carolling. Just gorgeous! I fed one at one point and he politely ignored me until he had broadcast the news about the food and was then joined by the rest of his family.

It was very cold at times and below is Aiden wearing his beanie and doing his hobbit impersonation. He didn't realise that it made his ears fold down LOL. Funny kid.

As with most holidays, there were accidents aplenty. The kids came off their bikes more often than they stayed on them. Aiden took bark off both knees, Caitie scored a snodging bruise...

And poor Conor had a meltdown one night when he fell over and scraped his toes. Even a shower with Daddy couldn't settle him so he was wrapped in a blankie and we sat by the open fire singing the songs I sang to them as babies. Morning Town Ride was a favourite as was My Happiness by Powderfinger. Hours were spent sitting in front of the fire, toasting marshmallows, sipping hot drinks and gazing at the flames.

We took a long drive one day, with the sole intention of getting away for a little while. Travelling through the gorgeous winter countryside we saw plenty of cows, horses, sheep, brown paddocks and then we found the most beautiful forest area. We all got out and went for a walk down a firetrail breathing in the air. It was so cold it burnt as you breathed in! And the scenary...

Another day trip was to the Somerset Dam wall where we took some family pics.

As a final droplet of interesting information, South East Queensland is coming out of one of the worst droughts we have ever had. At one point our dams were down to under 12%. And finally the heavens opened and we got rain, rain and more rain. On the way to the front shop, there is a billboard which features photographs of the dam prior to the rain and after. It was an eyeopener as today Somerset is sitting on 94% full. That is one heck of a lot of water!

This holiday taught us quite alot.

1. Family time is very important


2. Wine is not the answer to everything


3. Our children, not matter how feral they can be, are angels compared to some


4. There is no such thing as possum proof


5. Sex is impossible on a blowup bed that squeaks every time you breath out.


6. Never tuck your pyjama top in to your bottoms prior to holding a child with a full bladder in the throe of night terrors.


7. Walking to the toilets in urine soaked pyjamas at ten pm is mighty cold.


8. If you start a game of tag with two adults and five children, every child within a 2km radius will turn up to join in.


9. Kids who don't know each other tend to respect the rules of tag.


10. The size of the firewood is determined by the size of the campoven.

Will we do it again? On our own, yes. With the same family, not unless hell freezes over. Are we still friends, yep but I have a new respect for our skills as parents and how we are bringing our children up.

After all, respect and manners are the cornerstones of solid citizens.

Cheers,

Cin