The "Potentially" Sane Mother's Guide to Raising Children

About two or three years ago, my husband and I ordered a bunch of books from the Deseret Book Shop, to give as gifts to family and friends. While doing this, I ordered a couple of books for myself that looked like they might be good reads for me. One of them was a book called The Potentially Sane Mother's Guide to Raising Children. I think I read the preface, and then it go put into storage with the rest of our belongings for a while, shifted around and stored again before finally ending up in our shed, before we finally got a bookshelf. Out came all the books we thought we needed, and it sat on the bookshelf for another year before I rediscovered it a couple of weeks ago. 

This time, I began to read it properly. It is wonderful! It's written very clearly and normally, without any professional jargon, and she uses great experiences from her own life to illustrate the concepts in the book. It has some really good activities in it that you can use as family home evening lessons that help to emphasize the concepts. And it's taught me a lot about myself as a mother. While it's geared towards LDS families and younger children, the ideas are definitely adaptable to families of all faiths or non-faith, and can be adjusted to suit older children as well. 

While it would be impossible for me to implement every change in the book straight away, I've picked out a couple of things that I want to work on. I love things that motivate me to try harder and be more aware as a mother, even if I don't succeed at first. I also love that all the concepts in the book are ideas that I can easily see being implemented in our family. I have read a lot of books about raising children and families that have made me wonder where on earth they are getting their information from? This book is realistic, and breaks the changes down into small pieces that make it seem simple. I'm excited to begin trying out more of the ideas in this book in time.

Singing Autumn Leaves

I was recently called back into primary as the pianist, and I think it is my dream calling. I absolutely love playing the piano for primary. I work with some wonderful music leaders. They do a great job. Much better, I think, than when my husband and I were music leaders! During the summer, they had a big cardboard sun on the board, and after each song, a child that had been trying really hard during that song was chosen to come and choose one of the "rays" from around the sun. Each ray had a song number written on it, and that was the song we sung.


At the beginning of autumn, our music leaders came with a basket full of real, dry autumn leaves. On each leaf was the song number. The kids have so much fun gently shaking the basket and then carefully picking out a leaf and reading the song number. Sometimes they have to guess the song. And sometimes the leaves get crushed :) But it's all part of the fun, and the leaves get replaced.I love this idea so much that I decided to incorporate it into our family home evenings. I figure that this way, if I use the same song numbers, it will give my children a few extra chances to practice the songs at home. 


I didn't use real leaves (although I do love the textural element of those dry leaves) because I wanted to be able to keep mine as long as possible, and because it's actually raining here in Perth, for the first time in a long while, so all the autumn leaves are soggy and squished. So I bought some red, orange and brown card and spent a couple of nights tracing leaf shapes onto my coloured card and cutting them out. I couldn't be bothered laminating and cutting out all those laminated leaves though. 

To make them re-useable, I put a piece of tape on the back of each leaf. Then I cut some plain white self-adhesive labels into small pieces and put a piece on top of the tape, then wrote the song numbers on the label. When I want to change the song numbers, I'll be able to just peel the label off the tape, and put another label on. 

 I'm thinking about making a cardboard branch for the leaves to be displayed on, or maybe once the rain stops and everything dries out again I'll get a real branch, put it in a vase and blu-tack the leaves to that. The kids think it's a great idea. They love picking out a song from the basket, and it helps them to learn the songs they're working on in primary too, because I use those songs on the leaves.

For winter, I think I'll make a cloud with raindrops and write the song numbers on each raindrop. I thought about doing snowflakes, but we don't get snow. We don't really get much rain either but at least the kids know what rain is :)

Thinking About Christmas Trees Already...

I was inspired last year by Cami from Tidbits and her "way back when" idea for redecorating her Christmas. I'm tired of our coloured plastic ornaments and bead strings on our tree. I really like the gold and green colour combination we have, but I want something warmer and more homely, and I want to decorate our whole house this way, not just our tree.

Cami's gorgeous "way back when" tree.

So for a long while now I've been thinking about our tree - because that's where I'm going to start - and what I want to do with it. I want it to have a handmade atmosphere that feels comforting and inviting, yet rustic and is also very textile. I've been pinning lots of ideas on Pinterest because even though it's only May, I know it will take me all year to make them. And also because I'm really not creative when it comes to decorating, so it will take me all year to figure out if my ideas will actually work together. I'm seeing browns and creams, maybe a little green and red too.


Some of my favourite ornament ideas on my Pinterest board:


I love these paper flowers made from sheet music and the words used as garlands around the tree... 

  And these gorgeous, print covered baubles...

These adorable little brown paper parcels... 

 This gorgeous little pearl wreath ornament to add a little elegance to the tree, while still being homely and vintage.

 And these twine covered baubles, which I think are my favourites because of the amazingly textile quality the twine gives them. Perfect to add to the rustic, homemade feel I want for our Christmas tree this year. 

 And because I absolutely adore felt and the warmth it seems to bring to projects like this. These pretty little felt balls...

I love these beautiful little twine baubles for a modern twist while still keeping with my textile, rustic theme...

Some vintage christmas sheet music for inspiration, to use in my ornaments perhaps...

Now, I'm not a fan of the burlap decorating thing. But I really love these stockings. Burlap would fit in very well with my theme. I especially love the wooden initials hanging from the stockings, instead of printed or embroidered names on them. 

Lots of inspiration, time to get started :)

Luncbox Treats

I've become a little tired of buying expensive junk food that pretends to be healthy for my children's lunchbox snacks. So over the mid-term break, I spent a little of my time off from uni Googling some easy lunch box treats that I could make for my children. 


I started by making a triple batch of muffins. I used the basic muffin mix recipe from Best Recipes and made apple and cinnamon variations. One batch of plain apple and cinnamon, one batch of apple and ginger, and one batch with the added goodness of wheatgerm and flaxseeds hidden in there. I didn't get any pictures, but next time I make a batch, I'll be sure to take some and upload them here.


These muffins are super, super simple to make. When they were cool, I wrapped each muffin individually in cling film, labeled them and put them in a container in the freezer. Each night I just grab a couple from the freezer to defrost for the next day. They may not be supremely healthy, but at least I know they are free from the additives and other nasties that hide in kids' snack foods. Plus, they're much cheaper (under $3 for a dozen, compared to $5 for a 6 pack of muesli bars - the ones that are halfway decent, anyway). And making them makes me feel like I'm a good mum :)


Next on my list are:


Afghan biscuits  - they were a favourite treat when I was growing up.

Anzac slice  - an easy variation on the Anzac biscuit

Peanut brownie biscuits - another favourite treat. These remind me of "camping" at the beach on our Uncle's farm during holidays when I was a child in NZ.

Peanut butter and oat slice  - it looks easy and yummy.

Here's to baking up a storm for the kiddies :) This weekend we're making afghan bikkies!

Journal Entry: University!

 
It's been a long time coming, but I finally bit the bullet at the end of last year and applied for university. I'm studying a Nursing degree through Charles Darwin University (yes, in Darwin!), and then I will do a post-graduate degree in Midwifery. No, we won't be moving to Darwin any time soon though! 


I'm studying externally, which, while it does have it's drawbacks, was the perfect option for me. For starters, it's saving me around 2 hours of travel time a day. That's a huge time-saving right there. I can start studying as soon as the kids are at school, and I can finish studying and go straight into cooking dinner in the evenings - no waiting around for trains and buses or drive time. Studying externally means I have flexibility - no conforming to lecture and tutorial timetables, no contact hours. It also means I don't have to carry all those books to uni every day! The online learning environment takes some getting used to, but each unit has a learning guide and a weekly study plan which outlines your readings and tasks for that week. I also have a wide support network through the Learnline (that's the name of the online learning website) and unit discussion boards, my lecturers are all available to give help and advice and the CDU external nursing studies facebook page which has been a great help and given me a wealth of information.


Studying full time though, has meant an immense change for me. All of a sudden, I need to use time-management skills in a completely different way. I have to fit in 30 hours of study a week, as well fit in the things that I was already doing as a SAHM. I've just finished my first week and I am completely exhausted. I feel like I'm back to working 10 hour days. For most of this week I've felt like I got thrown in the deep end, completely bypassed the treading water stage and just went straight into drowning. I was in tears at one stage. But my wonderful husband, my dad and a few facebook friends (one of whom is in her 4th year doing this degree externally) put things into perspective and gave me some great advice.


We moved house right before uni started too. So uni started and I was STILL trying to organize the house the way I needed it to be. I do feel a little crazy :)


So, the next month or so is going to be difficult as I adjust to my new study schedule, and slowly change the way I run the house and the way we do things to accommodate the change in pace. For now, I am concentrating on getting into a study routine and being thorough - that is, checking each unit carefully to make sure I get all the information I need each week - I'd hate to miss an important assignment or something!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Our family has been very lucky to be able to send our children to a wonderful public Primary School. The school has a great community atmosphere, and the teachers are wonderful. At the end of last year, I wanted to do something different to the usual Christmas chocolates and card. My little girl was also in Family Day Care one day a week and I wanted to do something for her day care carer, who is absolutely awesome. I found this "Thank You For Helping Me Grow" idea here at Giggles Galore...

   
...and fell in love with it. I changed mine up a little though, to make it more Christmassy and more cost effective, since I had a total of ten to do (in each class there are one or two teachers and two or three teacher's assistants and I wanted to give one to the crossing attendant - she's there every single day, in the freezing rain in winter and the unbearable heat of our hot West Aussie summer making sure our kids are safe).  


So I went to my local Bunnings Warehouse and wandered through the plant section until I came across little pots of herbs in their nursery section for $1.99 each. I had originally been looking at colourful flowers, but herbs are useful. It can become a gift that keeps on giving. I decided leafy green herbs would look lovely, so I chose sweet basil, mint and coriander. I figured the teachers could swap them if they preferred. Then I went to Spotlight and bought a few fat quarters in some pretty red Christmas fabric (on clearance since it was so close to Christmas) some green ribbon and 2 sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper.

 I made up these little cards out of the scrapbook paper and taped a couple of bamboo skewers (since I had them on hand already) to the backs of each one.

I cut each fat quarter into four equal strips, wrapped them around the pots and held them in place with a rubber band, then tied the ribbon around it and pushed the cards into place.

My husband was impressed, I think. At least, he encouraged me to take photos of the process! And they were a big hit with the teachers :)

Coffee For Skin?

We have just returned from an amazing four month adventure. I will post some blogs on this road trip later. For now, I just wanted to share this. 

Coffee Grounds. 

 Yep. While working in a school in Arnhem Land, we were talking about the students possibly making skincare products and selling them to the community. I told my friend that I'd heard coffee was being used in skin care products now and was being hailed as a skin wonder. We decided to take home the coffee grounds from the coffee machine and try them out as a scrub. So I tried it, and it was fantastic. The coffee grounds made my skin smooth and soft and I didn't need to moisturize the next day. I'm not a coffee drinker though (and neither are any of my friends or family) so I don't have access to coffee grounds but I'm thinking about just buying a bag of coffee beans and dumping them into my Thermomix... It was the best body scrub I've ever used.

The Hospital Bag

I packed the labour bag, and I've just finished packing my hospital bag. I'm planning to take advantage of the break I'll get while I'm in hospital and hoping to stay as long as possible! I'm a weirdo, as much as I wanted to get home with the last two, I actually enjoyed the peace and quiet in hospital, and not having to worry about anything except myself and the baby. And pretty much, it's just an extended version of my labour bag...


For Me:
3 changes of comfortable clothes
Sleep pants and loose, comfy tops, socks and extra underwear. I may need more changes of clothes but since we don't live far from the hospital if I need more I'll just ask Brook to bring some - I'm certain he'll be there at LEAST once a day!
Slippers and/or jandals (flip-flops, thongs, whatever they're called in your area)
Toiletries
Body wash and washer, shampoo and conditioner, facewash, toner and moisturizer.
Comb, hair spray, spare hair ties and bobby pins.
2 packs of maternity sanitary pads (I actually find that all-night pads with wings and extra length work better, since I'm sitting in bed most of the day), a few breast pads, just in case (although I probably won't need them at this early stage), paw paw ointment (toothbrush and toothpaste are in the labour bag).
Food 
Crackers, Kraft cheese packs, dried fruit and nuts, muesli bars, chocolate and juice.
Because I found I was often hungry in between snack/meal times, or I just didn't like the dinner or lunch that was on offer that day, or just because. Sometimes just knowing you have chocolate on hand is a comforting thought!
Cash for the tv.
A couple of favourite books (I am a voracious reader), 
A notebook and pen (or journal)
A sudoku puzzle book.
Comfortable going home outfit
I've got maternity jeans because I'm guaranteed to fit them and a loose blouse


For baby:
Extra nappies and wipes (the hospital only provides 18 nappies)
Baby lotion, cotton wool balls, cotton buds and baby wash
3 onesies, 2 pairs of socks, a hat and a couple of wraps (although the hospital does provide singlets and wraps)
A going home outfit
A dummy (because all my babies wanted dummies, so just in case).


Now, to keep cleaning and wait for the baby to arrive... and wait... and wait.. and wait...