Basketball Camp

Alexander is getting to the age where he needs some 'activities' during the holidays - especially the June ones which are always cold and miserable. Hello Basketball Camp. Two full days of training and exercise with his basketball team. The ball and shirt were signed by some basketball people - probably the same ones as in this photo......

15 minutes

I have started a new habit - well trying anyway. I found this site though 74 Lime Lane and am jumping at the challenge. Most of what she said resinates with me.

The first question - Are you living in CHAOS? (Cant have anyone over syndrome?) Well its a big yes from me. The cleaning and organising drops to the bottom of my to do list, and when people are coming over, I fall into a flat spin and like a tornado clean the surface.

The concept of it is to develop habits that make cleaning and organising your home easier, but also de-cluttering and looking after yourself - not just everyone else.

How it works is the FLYLady (Finally Loving Yourself) sends me an email everyday telling me what to do. The first day was polish the sink and I have to do this every day. The second one was get up and get dressed straight away -right to shoes ready to walk out the door. Today I got additional emails about stopping procrastinating and doing a list of things - which I did because I was told to.

So today I have made all the beds, changed the sheets, washed and put away all the dishes, scrubbed the bathroom, washed and folded clothes as well as made myself presentable. Not only have I done this but the kids have helped!

Everything seems to be split into 15 minute blocks so we have been setting the alarm and going for it. There are even times you have to rest for 15 minutes. I have not been this regimented with my time since I was feeding!

The boys are also embracing the challenge - they all had to dress themselves, put out their dirty clothes and make their beds in 15 minutes today and actually they were pretty successful. Benji helped with the sheets and Xandy helped scrub the bath. The other massive success was at dinner. Normally we can sit for what seems like hours with the kids trying to get them to eat their dinner. They had 15 minutes and what wasn't eaten went to the dog. The timer seemed to take away the tears and the dog only got some scraps. Lets hope I can make these habits permanent.

Oh - and for the procrastination challenge I took photographs of all the boys artwork for the digital frame. Some has gone in the 'precious' cabinet and the rest becomes wrapping. Any extra goes to the bin and I have a clean space! My 15 minutes blogging is up!!!

The Quilts

Nothing like a challenge to get Mum into action. She made not one, but two quilts for the twins for half christmas. It has been something she has been meaning to do since they were born. While I was pregnant she was working on a redwork quilt but it ended up too girly and hence was gifted to a cousins baby. (I tried to find a picture of it, but after wasting a heap of time, I cant find it)

Anyway, at 4 1/2 the boys got their quilts. In navy, white and red. It was probably better to wait to this age because there was no inclination to do a real baby quilt.

The idea is having an ageless quilt. It is something I would happily have on my bed, but is not at all feminine. It isn't masculine in the traditional way either - in that I mean all brown and musty. It is sharp and clean with strong colours and totally unisex. In a word - Perfect.

The quilt is called "Both Sides of the Pond" and is from "Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. I think it is slightly bigger than the pattern with a larger white boarder to give it a touch more width. At this point it hangs right over our single beds (hiding all the stuff underneath) but also sits nicely on the top of our king size bed.

Nan has embroidered a little name patch on each of them underneath - which is backed in red and white ticking style fabric. They both love them now and hopefully will travel with them through their life's journey.

Winter Chills

The first 'official' day of holidays and I am seriously going to have to find my happy place to make it through two weeks. Already the squabbles and provoking have started, but despite all that we braved the winter chill and met friends out at Jells Park. Lots of fresh air and excercise and no cost makes the cold bearable - that and the fact that no-one went in the lake!!

Rainbows

We saw a rainbow today. It was so bright and was so thick that the colours looked to repeat themselves. The boys came straight inside and started drawing their own rainbows.

Very proud of themselves

And great rainbow impressions - Spencers of course has dinosaurs under the rainbow!

Lazy day

With an early basketball game, we settled into and enjoyed the winter sun at a slow speed. Alexander cracked open the lego he got for 'half christmas' and between

he and Mr P. once they started they couldn't stop! There is still a little to go on Hogwarts Castle, but the detail in it is fantastic, and once built it makes a great playspace.

Mum brought down her piemaker and whipped up some yummy meat pies and sweet apple pies for tea.

Choices

It is always funny how your perspective effects your choices. Personally, I would prefer choices to be taken away from me as I tend to over think things and worry over the smallest thing, where if I just let it roll it would probably work out fine.

Xandy had a free dress day today so I let him have his choice of what to wear. He came out in his school shorts (yes its winter) and very proudly wearing his new Joey Scouts top- complete with badges.

I have to admit I struggled with this, but let it go. I was worried he may get teased or picked on, particularly by older kids. But, I held my tongue and said nothing and wished him the best for the day.

Turns out this was the best thing I could have done. He had a great day. Everyone made a fuss of his top and are interested in hearing more about Joeys and maybe joining. Basically, the exact opposite of what I thought would happen. Seems mother doesn't know best (well not always!)