Movember

Its almost November!

This year my husband Andrew is organising a "Movember" group.

For those of you who spend large amounts of time under a rock [without TV] Movember has become somewhat of a phenomenon in Australia. Its more than just an an excuse for guys to sport terribly ugly facial hair for a month while their WAGs put up with it, its actually a major fundraising and public awareness campaign for men's health - in particular regarding prostate cancer and depression.

These things are NOT sexy!

Andrew is particularly invested in doing something about it, because he has a rather large black dog [black dog is a modern australian euphemism for depression] that he has a lot of trouble with. Sometimes its small and just in the background, but it gets quite large and terrifying not just for him but for those who are around and care for him too. So he's doing something about it.

So for Movember, I have to put up with Andrew's bare chin and upper lip, which will become all stubbly and itchy to kiss and then finally a revolting looking moustache.  If you care about me, or Andrew or men's health why don't you donate to his Movember group?

By the way, in case you're looking for help with depression you're experiencing, if you're wondering if what you're experiencing could be depression, or you want to know how on earth to deal with someone who has depression [which trust me is really hard sometimes!] then I recommend that you go to the Black Dog Institute and or Beyond Blue were you will find tons of helpful resources about it.

El-cheapo Baby Hammock

If I could spend lots of money on something special for our new little girl, I think it would be one of these: 

Nature's Sway Hammock & Stand $329

The one I have pictured is the entry level product - you can go all the way to the Deluxe Model at $470

If I had the luxury, I would totally buy one, for a few reasons. Its portable, babies love the movement, the gentle curve is comfortable for them. Its just a wonderful product.

Lucky for me I don't let a little thing like money stop me! I've managed to put one together for $25. 

Hanging from our messy bedroom door

My friend Amanda had a Jolly Jumper that her kids have grown out of. The spring and clamp are the same as the hammock ones, so I figured that would be the easiest way to create the setup. 

So we don't have a real infant but the doll works.

I had done some googling previously to see if anyone had made one of these before, hopefully someone with a better idea of how they work in real life, than me who has only seen pictures. The best instructions I found were on Life on the Roof  - a blogger in the USA. She had all the measurements that I needed.

I had to buy some calico, thread [which sort of doesn't count because you always need that but I included it in the costing to be fair] and a carabiner to attach the whole shebang to the Jolly Jumper setup. All together these cost me $25. 

I also needed some ties so I used cotton tape, a mattress - I happened to have a spare one exactly the right size, and a pole to separate the top, for which I used the Jolly Jumper bar.

The blue Jolly Jumper hiding amongst the calico

The blue bar kind of cuts through the lovely light and organic feel of the calico setup, but we're talking function not fashion here you know?

Addie is WAY too big for it and her chunky legs dangle off the edge, but I laid her in it anyway and she loved the movement!!! Being a 1 year old she is smart enough to figure out that it moved when she kicked her legs, so those legs were going like crazy while her giggles were enough to make me want to make her a giant toddler size one! I didn't though.

While the mattress is fine, its just a light foam plastic coated bassinette thing. It'd be nice to have a lovely wool breathable deal, but we'll see if that ever happens or not. Apart from that the only improvement I'd like to see is a portable stand, but even the Jolly Jumper ones are pretty $$ so I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Preparing for Birth

So, there are just under 3 months between now and when I'm expecting to give birth to our 2nd daughter.  That means we're already over two thirds of the way through this pregnancy, if all goes to plan.

Naturally, as I did last time, I'm thinking about the impending birth and how to prepare for it. With Addie I read some books, made really long lists, and talked to people who had given birth and got a few ideas about how I might like it all to go. With all this information I wrote a plan and then we went through the real thing.  As I had suspected, nothing can really prepare you for the real thing, and we had some birthing hiccups but ended up with a very healthy baby and a scar on my belly.

This time I've been doing some more reading, and listening and thinking about how to get the outcome that I want. I've ordered Active Birth [I read it last time but I didn't delve as deeply as I could!] and Hypnobirthing - both of which are making their way here [slowly...] from the UK.

In conjunction to the Hypnobirthing, I've been looking at relaxation methods and positive birth affirmations. I'm also making myself a birthing book. The birthing book is like a really HUGE birth plan, that has a few functions - one helping me to prepare my mind for the birth, helping me to remember what  I really want and how to get it, and giving me some direction. It has pictures of pretty things that I've collected over time from magazines and various places, as well as nice paper and so far is fun to make. I'm also hoping that it will help me focus on the things that I need to during that time so that my mind doesn't become caught up with useless fears and anxieties.

In addition to reading about these things, I need to practice them, the positions and the relaxation. Lastly I found some preparation questions to help me identify what my hopes, fears and options are for labour. I am hopeful that working through these with Andrew as well will be good emotional preparation and help identify flaws in the whole process - and particularly if there is anything left hanging over from Addie's birth which might inhibit me during the birth of this tiny girl.

So thats where I'm at with the whole "preparing for the new baby" thing at the moment. I can't wait for my books to arrive so that I can get started properly!

Whats Your Story #3

I Could Make A Difference...

We played my "Whats your Story?" cards around a meal last night with a group of about 14 people, some we knew well, some not at all, and all for less than 2 years.

The card I pulled said "I could make a difference..." and I'm going to share what was roughly my answer, not because I"m awesome or because it was well articulated but because it is something that I need to constantly remind myself of - and just maybe you need to be reminded too.

I could make a difference...
By running around trying to fix everything
By trying to help everyone
By being involved in everything that I can
By researching every unethical company and boycotting them
By buying only organic food
By buying only second hand
By supporting lots of sponsor kids


OR I could be me, live on purpose, do well the things that I commit myself to, and do it with love.

- I don't think that those things in the top list are bad of themselves, I just think that it is a trap to think that a list of activities and rules [guidelines even] can make a difference. It will just burn you out and leave you hollow and of no use to anyone. Without Love we can't actually achieve anything.  St Paul told the gathering of Christians in Corinth this... "If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing... In this life we have three great lasting qualities - faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love."

In an Pickle

Its harvest time for some of my garden. I don't think that I showed you our peas since they flowered - we were away when they were at their peak, but we got a bowl of pods off them and Andrew Addie and I enjoyed handfuls of fresh peas for a couple of days. Yum.

The beetroot looked liked they'd been in the ground long enough. I didn't actually make note of when they were planted, so I couldn't tell from how many weeks they were.  I decided that pickling them would be the best bet - why not, everyone else is doing it! Check out these two blogs I read, Down To Earth and Living Shell.

1. The beetroot before I harvested. It is so beautiful with it's purple stems and rich green leaves. Its worth planting just for that! Lucky though it has a buried treasure.

2. The treasure!! Some of these were quite big, the size of my fist, and others were only golfball size or smaller. I'm not sure why there was such discrepancy when they were planted from the same seedlings at the same time? Is that normal, anyone?

3. Pulling them out was so much fun!! It wasn't hard, the ground was soft and as you saw they kind of grew half out of it anyway. There was something really satisfying about pulling it all up.

4. Mr Snail was having lunch on the leaves. We don't normally get a large amount f snails here, but the wetter than normal weather has encouraged them. I let Mr Snail keep the leaf.

5. The beets are washed, stems removed [and put in the fridge to cook for 'ron] and on the roasting tray. The other two ladies from whom I took my lead boiled theirs, but I like how roasting concentrates the flavours. It was a good move, they were very easy to peel and weren't waterlogged. 

6. Pickles!!! Wooo! I got 2 spaghetti sauce jars and one crushed garlic jar full  - probably about a litre. So  apparently 11 of my little beets equal about 6 big ones. I think that mine are a small variety, but they taste great!

So, pretty much I cleaned, roasted and then sliced the beets. Then I boiled a brine made from apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, allspice, bay leaf salt and sugar, poured it over the top and put on the lids. Now I just have to wait a week or so for the flavours to infuse. They get kept in the fridge for me to eat on sandwiches. Yum yum!  I have some more seeds soaking to plant tomorrow, and this time I'll make not of when they are planted. 

I also want to make a list of things that we are going to grow ourselves this year and make a plan so that we don't miss out on planting and so we can plan the best use of space, and have lots of happy plants. 

3000 words

Living Room Revamp

You heard last time that my couch had broken and how I was sad about it. Now I'm no longer sad, I'm happy and comfortable!

We bought a single bed base that I saw at the Junk Shop for $20 + $10 delivery. Then we bought a 10mm foam mattress from the furniture store for $78 + $10 delivery, and put them together with some pillows on top, hey presto a day bed/lounge = $118 that we didn't want to spend, but some things are important, and to be honest, I need a lot of naps at the moment and I just can't lie on my bed while Addie plays in the living room. [When we try that, she comes into our room and smacks me in the face to see if I'm awake. If I pretend not to be awake, she sticks her finger up my nose]

I love everything about it. It could probably do with matchy pillows, or ones with a stronger theme than "vintage stuff Tab likes. It also needs a long term solution for covering the mattress, I've got a sheet on it  at the moment but I'll probably make a more fitted cover at some stage to make it more tidy.

Andrew wants to put sides on it so that it looks more like a day-bed, because he says "it looks like we just stuck a bed in our living room" which is exactly what we did!  I don't think it needs sides, and we could run the risk of making the whole thing look a bit try-hard.

I love how it is firm but comfortable, I can lounge, or sit cross legged and there is plenty of room for me and my laptop, or all 3 of us to sit together. Its also going to be handy when the baby comes, and for those nights where I'm driven to insanity by Andrew's ridiculous snoring.

While I was at the fixing up the furniture thing, I did up Andrew's chair too.

His chair is classic nursing home fare. I would love to put a knee rug or doily on it but he gets funny about things like that. I don't care if it keeps him off my couch. [Last time he sat on my couch it broke...] 

I actually love the original fabric of the chair - it used to be a beautiful rich emerald that has faded and ripped and needs some love. Love arrived in the form of a nowhere near as pretty light green upholstery fabric that I got at a bargain $1.50/m. Its a nice textured piece and also came in a BEAUTIFUL red, but no, I was informed that the red would not do [I think it was too happy for a chill-out chair in his world? In my world EVERYTHING is improved if it is red] and the man who sits in the chair chose the colour. Like I said, it keeps him off my couch.

The chair covers and foam were disintegrating even more than the picture shows, so I just put the new fabric right over top of the old one. I was afraid that removing the original covers would leave me with a pile of crumbled foam, and we're not in the market for a full reupholster, nice as it would be. 

If you come to visit, don't judge it too carefully. It looks good and sits well but I didn't go overboard with the details [It was a 2 hour project max], so you'll see some slight puckers etc. It does the job though, and we're feeling very posh right now with our "new" furniture.

Eggs, a bump and a sad sad couch.

Our chooks have become layers!! They produced their first dozen while we were in Sydney, so they were eaten by our friend who was feeding the chooks.  So now between them, our girls have produced 12 more, making a total of 24 eggs - on average 8 each. Go you good things. 

Tonight I made myself scrambled eggs for dinner. My favourite way to eat eggs are as icecream, as custard, sunnyside up, soft boiled and scrambled. There are a million 'secrets' to the perfect scrambled eggs. The middle pic shows one of mine - a pan with PLENTY of butter. Sorry Lucy. I also really like a pinch of basil in my eggs - thats what the dark specks are - I didn't drop them on the ground, I swear. 

This is my baby bump at 25 weeks and 5 days. Its getting big enough to get in the way when I bend over, and I bump it into things. Sorry baby. Addie is just discovering body parts on herself and us, and thinks my flat belly button is hilarious.

Lastly, and this is very sad - not on the scale of world hunger, but its still a big deal to me. Say goodbye to the couch.

I must admit I've wanted a bigger couch for a while, but they are as rare as hens teeth and bees knees in Broken Hill - at least good 2nd hand ones are. I've been offered a fantastic couch in Sydney and another in Ballarat but those places are very far away and our car has no tow-bar. 

Well, yesterday whilst Andrew was getting up off the couch there was an awful splinter and couch gave up the ghost, kicked the bucket and farewelled this planet. Its hard to see in this picture but the supporting beam on the bottom has separated from the frame in an irreparable manner. Thats quite impressive because we'll scavenge and fix almost anything.  

Not meaning to complain, but as our car has been a bit of a high maintenance diva lately and we went to Sydney for Andrew's uni, we're not really in a couch buying position right now.  That is bad news for my sore bottom [a pregnancy thing, if you don't understand, you probably don't need to]. So we're thinking about making the toddler bed that Addie isn't yet using, into a couchy thingo, we just have to get some foam cut for it because it has no mattress.  I will let you know how that one goes could be a bit hit or miss :) Oh and everyone is teasing me with their nice, intact couches on Hello Owl. You could go there and have a look if you want.

Sydney in a nutshell

We spent the last couple of weeks in Sydney. Andrew has to go there for on-campus classes at his uni a couple of times a year, and Addie and I get a little holiday. Here is a summary of our time there.

DIY Hair

Sometimes I'm a real scrooge. I don't like paying for services when I think that I might just be able to manage it myself. As a result, I mostly cut my own hair. This activity usually has various degrees of success, but more often than not I'm happy and thats good enough for me. See with hairdressers, I can't see why I'd pay $30+ for something thats boarderline ok. I do know a hairdresser here that does an awesome job of my hair, but it costs $70 just for the cut and my hair grows so  quickly that I'd be spending hundreds of dollars a year on it and I just can't justify that. Its just hair for goodness sake!

So here it is right now. I still love dreads, but they're not practical for me at this time of life. Next best thing is short hair that I can wash every couple of days,  chuck a hair clip in and say it is done.  I've figured out how to achieve this - after only about 28 years. {I'm 29, but I didn't have hair really til after my 1st birthday}

My hair is a little special, very very tough [I've never had split ends], dead straight - you can't make it hold a curl for anything, thin but there is a LOT of it and very shiny so that hairclips and other accoutrements fall out very quickly. Here's the trick, what makes the difference between flat, heavy, high maintenance hair, and bouncy, pretty wispy hair, is thinning it out. So I cut my hair to the length and shape I want and then go at it with a pair of these. 

Thinning Shears

The result is lots of texture, a frightening amount of hair on the ground, and hair that I'm happy with. 

I'm no hair dresser, but sometimes it pays to give something a shot - even if you're not sure you can do it! You might just surprise yourself. 

Maternity Sewing

I've started to outgrow my 'normal' and 'roomy' clothes, and suddenly found that I don't have a lot to wear. I do have some maternity clothes that I was given by various people, but most of it is for the end stages, or is in sizes that are just too large for me and the way my baby sits. So while on holiday I stumbled across this tutorial for a Peasant Blouse, and it looked too easy to pass up.  All I needed for it was a man's business shirt and some elastic. 

The shirt I got is made from Indian Cotton and to be honest would only suit a particular type of man! I loved the orange and blue stripes though. It cost me a whole $3.

In all it's original glory

In case you're too lazy to follow the link, I'll tell you how you do it. Its essentially a man's shirt with the top part cut off over the shoulders and scooped as much as you want. I'm a modest girl - [or I am when Addie isn't pulling down my top to see whats down there!] so I scooped it rather shallow at the back and slightly deeper at the front, but you could go quite a lot lower and it would still look pretty.

Clearly I didn't spend a fortune on a photographer
but you get the idea.

 I opted for elastic in the arms and a drawstring at the front, which means its really versatile depending on how I want to wear it, and I thought the cotton drawstring was sweet.

It is very roomy - just what you need with a rapidly expanding belly, the indian cotton is super breathable and I can see this getting a lot of wear as we get to 30 degrees and above. I have a few ideas about making this again for post-maternity, but taking some of the fullness out of the back and adding a wee bit of shape by curving in the sides slightly.

Pretty Shirt!

Oh a quick heads up - wear it with fitted jeans or some shorts because this particular style [with no fitting near the waist] makes it look like you've jumped out of a time machine from the 1950's/60's - unless thats the look you're after of course, and in that case, skirt it up!

A Delightful Daughter

Today is one of those days in which everything that Addie does is delightful. She began her day with 2 Wheet-bix and when she'd finished those she 'fed' me and her dolls with her empty spoon and bowl. Next she walked around the living room area, just wandering and singing. She got dressed with a minimum of tears, and spent an hour playing with her dad. She thought that his rendition of "In the Jungle" was the best thing ever and enthusiastically joined in with the "Weeee-a-wee-a-wee-amumaway" though hers was just an "Ahhhhhhhhhhh".  She made breathy "ah" noises all the way through my cup of tea [the same I make to make her laugh at the end of each mouthful]

Later she played with her music "computer" and did actions to songs [actions she'd apparently made up]. When she was hungry she told me that she wanted a "nanna" for lunch - even though she couldn't see any around. She also thought that my long skirt was perfect for playing peek-a-boo. Se's going to love spring!

At the supermarket she made friends with an 11 month old boy behind us and they had each other in peals of laughter as they pulled faces and mimicked one another. At home she told me that the old teabag she'd fished out of my tea cup was "yum yum" and used her hand as a pretend mobile phone, apparently talking to dad.

I don't know what the rest of the day will bring. She didn't want a sleep, instead she sat in her cot playing with her freaky looking best friend, a giraffe named Colin and "reading" stories. Right now she's picking up imaginary objects of the floor and giving them to me, telling me to say "ta".

If only every day were like this!! For now I'm happy about today.