Benji the builder

There has been a bit, no a lot of noise around these parts. The house and any resemblance of plant life has been removed from the land behind us. They flattened the house, chopped every tree til only a dust bowl remained. Its very sad - moreso that I thought of my backyard as a green shady place but it turns out that none of those trees were mine! Even the fig tree full of near ripe fruit disappeared.

The dust and the noise has spurred on one little builder. He got his tools last year and was nagging for them to come out. Trotting around dressed the part, he was hammering on everything he could find so I put his skills to good use on cork tiles and foam shapes he happily sat and made pictures. 

Birthday Boy

The day started early with a treasure hunt. SO incredibly hard to believe that nine years have passed since I became a mum. In the day to day churn of life it feels like you have been doing it forever. I havent even qualified for long service leave yet! My darling little boy is not that little anymore and at 9 thinks and does a lot for himself. In fact most of his birthday requests were books. Lots of the packages are clothes - each individually wrapped to make their discovery a longer and more exciting process.

 The main present was a guitar. My old guitar infact that I had restrung. As a skill indication - I can play as well as he can now and we haven't begun lessons! Still the guitar is in really good condition and he was so pleased.

 It was a hot day and we spent it in the airconditioned comfort of the AMF bowling who thankfully had a summer special where we could bowl all day for $15 each. AWESOME

Into the evening we had a birthday celebration with family and some faux cousins.

M

My minecraft cake with instructions from indestructables. Basically there are squares of blue jelly (water) rice krispies which is rice bubbles held together with marshmellow and butter, madera cake and chocolate brownies which were iced in different shades of green to be the different types of land. All cut into squares and stacked. 

 A little something for everyone - but you can see he enjoyed the chocolate brownie!

The gang relaxing in front of the teev.

Daily Fix

 I think the boys have been a little bored - we have tended to be at home a lot these holidays which has meant they have had to draw on their imaginations!

They have set up a shop - the cappuccino company or as they spell it CAPPOCHINO COMPPINY but what can I complain when I had to look the spelling up myself. The best be it they have been making me tea. While that is divine - they charge me.

ON the flip side - I can get my shoe laces tied for FREE!!

Cooking up a storm

I got Benji and Spencer into the kitchen for a little cooking today. We made the best ever chocolate chip cookies. I used a recipe  I found on pinterest from Designmon.com and actually followed it to the letter and it is delish. Her link shows step by step but here is the basic recipe:

My Version of the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients:
1 cup (8 oz.) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat for 5 minutes on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for another minute after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in two or three additions, mixing on low speed just until the flour is incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips using a silicone spatula or the mixer on low speed.

Using a small ice cream scoop or tablespoon, drop balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving a few inches of room between them. Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking time. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. 

YUM!!

Uncertainty v Certainty

It has been six months since mums seizure and we have all been in a constant state of uncertainty. No one knew what had caused it. We didn't know if it could happen again. It came out of the blue. No one was really managing her case in terms of side effects or the flutters in her vision as she called them. There were visits to emergency, doctors to try and sort out her medication.

Even in the lead up to christmas after the most recent scan in the follow up appointment they said they weren't sure and would ring later. That night they got the call about the operation.

We have been on tender hooks for all this time. I am sure Dad has slept with one eye open and we have always made sure that someone is with her. She returned to work, but on the other days we ensured she had company.

Now the operation has happened. The doctors were thrilled with how well she recovered from the operation. They felt that they got most of the tumour with a little still too far in to interrupt but were pleased with the outcome. The sunshine and smiles were sucked from us on Monday night.

Poor mum was all alone when she got the news from pathology. The tumour was cancerous. Stage 4, Aggressive. She was given a life expectancy.

I got the first call. I knew it wasn't a good call immediately and she was worried how to tell dad. Should he have one more night of good relaxed sleep, not knowing and knowing she was safe in hospital. We agreed that no one would sleep if he didn't know so she had to tell her husband of over 45 years the horrible news.

I raced up there to be with him but really it hadn't sunk in. I think I was in a daze for a few days. Keeping exceptionally busy (a plus my house is really clean and tidy) but not processing. The other night I spoke with my brother who is slightly further through the process I suppose which was really helpful. I have also started doing some work on myself, meditation and about negative thoughts.

So I still have trouble talking about it and even thinking about it, but the last 2 days I have this overwhelming feeling that she is going to be ok. We have about a month before she starts treatment, which I understand to be radio and chemo therapy. She has a really positive attitude - most of the time. She is healthy and in good spirits and ready to fight. She had a body scan before the operation and was clear which is a positive. Of course she has her down times and I can only imagine how worried she is about everyone else. However, the mind is a powerful organ and can do miraculous things if we believe.

I still don't know though whether knowing or not knowing is better.

Parties

Alexander has two birthday parties today. One is Lazer skirmish and the other is afternoon tea with the girls. Can you guess which present is which?

Leotard

 The boys had a sleep over last night. We put the pop up tent in Xandy's room and they all intended to sleep- in it like this - well 2 out of three wasn't bad.

While these rumblings were going on, I had rumblings of my own kind - the pfaff was out and at it again. 

Xany has an invitation to a 'girl party' so I was excited to go over to the pink side. She is not a terribly girly girl and after talking about her and her interests - of which gymnastics is one, we settled on a leotard.

It has been a very very long time since I have been in a gymnastic setting (!!) so I had no idea what the trends were. Thanks to the internet I soon got the idea and its basically anything with a metallic print. Thinks are pretty wild in the gymnastics world (almost drag-ish)

I had this lycra on hand - it is a bit more purple in real life and using inspiration from the internet an the sizing from this kwik sew pattern, the result was this leaotard and gym shorts. The front has a high neckline and the diagonal line is continuous around to the dip in the back. The neck line is a little lower at the back but this too seemed the norm.

The main difference I did find was that these days the lycra shorts are worn over the top of the leotard, not underneath like in my day. Now just to hope they fit!