So I am the last minuter. Monday comes and I was searching the internet for things to do. In the end, with the weather crashing down on us… it was all about TIME AT HOME.

Scarey for some parents, but I sure prefer it. OK, we were not at home the whole time but for most of it… and it was fun. So far… so good.

1st Activity: Bunnings Warehouse, FREE Kids activity – Paint your own canvas.
2nd Activity: Grocery shopping for Gingerbread cookies!
3rd Activity: Bake Gingerbread cookies
4th Activity: Decorate cookies!

All smiles from here!

Missy C keeping herself occupied by going through my bag… sigh… She always seems to know how to whip out my credit card… hmmm the force is strong in this one…

Gingerbread man in budgie smuglers!

OOoh we were going to have Roti Canai for dinner and its quite ‘heaty’… so I made Chrysenthemum tea! HAHAHA MY grandmama would be so proud of me! I even added some gei ji (??) and some dates too…

OK so it doesn’t look appetising but IT WAS YUMMY! And Oh I’m so proud of myself for making it! lol…

I am probaly spreading myself too thin, and my older bro has just told me that I should do a few things, and DO THEM GOOD, instead of trying to do everything.

I am a stay at home mum at the moment, and looking at options to… well, contribute to the home loan, or atleast some how contribute to my ‘buying more clothes’ fund.

So the past couple of weeks I’ve been looking to buy an acting business…. which did not work out because we couldn’t see the financial figures of the business, and well, I’d like to think that when you’re going to invest a huge chunk of buckeroosss, and sell half your soul, looking at the business financials is um… ESSENTIAL!

Anyway then I looked at starting an art school. I has a friend friend in M’sia who had an art school, and have been looking to have a good chats with her to see what the possibility for that to happen here. OI! I’m coming down to M’sia for 4 days (??) for “training” so yeh… should meets up yah?? You know who you are ….

But you see that will take alot of my time, and well, there’s a chunky investment there too, setting up a studio, and blah blah when it comes to dealing with kids… so this is still working progress on its viability.

I have another thing I am looking at and slowly starting to build which I may reveal later on. Need to concerntrate and getting that going bfore telling everyone, else, I fall on my ass and everyone knows! Like I care but yeh… just being careful here.

THEN there’s this OTHER thing I am doing… just for fun and see what that can take me. Missy A’s school is having a ‘Mother’s day” fair thing, and I was asked by one of the other parents to set up a table to sell stuff. ARGH if only these people would like me clothes! (NO. bad idea) And then I came up with this…

http://abcdiy.wordpress.com/

Have a look around, and let me know what you thinks.

Each week, I will try to come up with a new idea/pack… that is economical for everyone. BEST of all, its all recyclable!! AND BEST BEST OF ALL… I can do it all at home while Missy C and Oscar chews on my ankles…. g..r…e…a…t….

Weird topic? I don’t know… I figured with school up and books to cover, I thought I would put in my two cents worth.

I loved preparing for school when I was younger (NOT that I am older… ??). I enjoyed buying stationery, labelling my books, and most of all… covering them. With Uni finished up ages ago… I have not had the pleasure to do so until Missy A starts school, and when she did… OMG SO SO excited… fo r like 10 seconds. THAT is because it was when I found out that her school will be providing ALL books, and ALL stationery. WTF!!?? They just killed all my hopes and dreams to frolic the stationery aisle at Kmart, or mush my drooling face at the window display at KiKi. WHAT THE!!!???

So anyway, after a good strawberry tea, I calmed down… and well, just accepting it. Though I was still planning in my head for NEXT year, and how I could possibly write to the school, and excuse Missy A’s inclusion of getting her books by the school. Weird? Crazy ? Yup. That’s me. That’s the stupid stuff I think about during the day. Night times, I’m more emo.

OK. So after her first day at school, you would imagine how SUPER excited I was when they got their exercise books, all in their naked form. WOOHOO! I get to cover them! Missy A, just did not seem as excited. Straight after school, we shopped for contact paper, and it was straight home to cover them! No Food, no stops, no nonsense. BACK TO COVER BOOKS. Ok ler, I wasn’t that bad. We had lunch, and chatted about school, and all the other obligatory parent stuff… (really… I am a good mother).

I’d like to think I am pretty pedantic when it comes to BUBBLE FREE covering. I remember once when I was in year 8, the first book I covered had HUGE bubbles in it that I opted to throw out the book to buy a new one. (I told mum we bought the wrong type… haha!).

OK so here are my two cents worth and the attempt to cover books with contact paper – BUBBLE FREE.

START to cover the back side first, because once you get the hang of it, then the FRONT is perfect. Logical right? (hmm never understood why Dave always said I never made sense…)

OK! Measure out the size of the book, and cut it out. Standard.

Then make a mark of where the edge of the book is, then fold over with an extra 2cm on the overlapping bit that is perpendicular to the edge of the back cover. Then peel back until the fold. This is where you start. Having just a small section exposed, creates less chances it will stick everywhere and drive you bonkers with creases, and bubbles.

Now, lay the book, back side up, and the page edges facing towards you. AS parallel to the edge of the table as possible, then lay the 2cm peeled side onto the book with the overlapping pieces sticking to the table.

Here’s a pic of what i did with the front cover.

..Then bit by bit, just rub along from the centre—out, while peeling back the contact.

TADA!

OK, hope that helped or not, but atleast now you know that I am even more crazy than you thought!

I am bragging.. only because I can. When you see the pics below, you will also understand why I can brag. My little girls’s GOT TALENT!

This is what happens when you let loose a 5 year-old with your camera while you are doing the gardening. I reckon these pics are just beautiful, and she has natural talent.

Peek-a-boo

I especially like this one…

LOVE this one… and when we discussed this picture with her, she was saying that she was trying to use the ‘A’, ‘P’ and ‘S’.

There has been such weird weird weather lately. Dust storms in Sydney, and today was like WINTER. Anyhoot, it is school holidays, and well, it isn’t the funnest thing to have kids indoors doing nothing while it rains outside.

You know, I think I have figured out the difference between ADULTS and CHILDREN. Adults are happy to do nothing sometimes, where else kids just don’t understand the concept of ‘doing nothing’ as a thing to do. We, adults can ENJOY doing nothing sometimes and kids find it REALLY REALLY BORING doing nothing. BLEH.

Anyway, so to brush off some boredom while it drizzles outside, I told Missy A that she could COOK lunch.

Was thinking of doing a video but I decided to TRUST her with a sharp knife this time and her standing over the stove. I was very nervous and wasn’t too sure whether I should give her an actual sharp knife but I think the  more I am around and I can keep an eye on her, trust her and encourage her, the better she can get with the knife and the happier she is. It is a big step from the plastic knife to the real deal, and she knows that and I think it was a nice confidence booster to know that I would trust her with the knife.

AND YES I even let her cook over the stove.

She definitely enjoyed this. I know I nearly had a heart attack stressing but I REMAINED cool. Phew…

And in the end, we had this. Yum. Tuna, onion and tomato pasta served with a wedge of lemon. I’ve grown a liking for lemon with my pasta.

Missy C is now 3 months, and doing every 3 month old baby does. Eat, poop, cry, smile,  drool, and some sleeping.

Actually, she was doing quite a fair bit of sleeping. At 6 weeks, I started her with control crying and the first session, she cried a good 45mins (OMG). But through the tough ‘ear blocking’ session, that night she slept 6 hrs! And then the night after, she sleeps 8 hours, and then the next 10!! Woohoo. Will write more later about control crying in a later post. BUT I have to say that she goes through cycles of good and then bad… and then good and then bad. Bleh… I guess its all part and parcel of being a baby.

She’s stable and really quite strong with her neck and back now… as you can see…

ARGHH!! She’s SO CUTE! CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!

Okay. The Missy A, if you recall, we were on Project 50. Where Missy A had to read 50 books and when she does, she’d be rewarded with a Nintendo DS. Well… She DID IT! And I am so super proud of her. She already has a Nintendo dog called Ally.

Missy A the MasterChef and her version and recipe with John West Tuna and Beans. Please watch, and if you enjoyed it… do send this on to your friends to encourage them to EAT EASY PEASY YUMMY Food. Please comment a little encouragement so that Missy A would like to do MORE mORE!

I am still trying to ‘love’ and understand my new post-baby body and how clothes sit better. All I know is that a shorter hemline with my short legs works better than a mid-calf length.

Errggh… I could never tell when the timer went off and always took me doing something… not cool… so anyway… as you can see, I no model. Lol… NOTE TO SELF: Need to take up all my skirts and dresses!

Its 8 months now since my goal to teach Missy A how to read and I have to admit that I haven’t exactly been very consistent with it. I have no excuse… I just got lazy… and distracted. But we’ve gotten back on the horse and this is where we’re at…

She reads atleast 4 books a week on her own, and seeing how well she is doing, we have set a goal to read 50 books, and she will be rewarded with a Nintendo DS when she does. We made a reading chart to keep count (which reminds me she has 4 more stickers to stick on) where she wrote all the numbers too.

What I’ve found helpful to her reading is remembering sight words. We’ve been working on Fry’s Instant Sight Words and the list or words are similar to the Dolch Sight Word List and I stumbled upon a really helpful Teacher Resource site from PlanningWithKids . I used to type up the whole list in Excel to put them into little boxes, print them and then use them in little games. Later, I found through the wonderful google, there’s a Magic 100 Words sheet already available. Grrrr… for me and woohooo… for you.

I’ve also seen these sheets from my cousin’s school, and I’m going to assume that the primary school that Missy A will go to next year will use the same. These then will be familiar to her when she does go to school next year, and she’ll be comfortable and confident.

Missy A is starting to put on shows for us which brings back memories of when I was a kid, when I put on shows for my uncles and aunties. I remember though this one time that I made my little cousins do the show while I directed everything.(Lol… yes remember that Krystle?!)

Hehehe anyway, Missy A last night put on a show where her pony was the star. She made it jump over a stick, prance around, do ballet, and my very favourite… made it come to her when she made a special gesture.

I wonder when the girls will start asking daddy for a Pony… and I wonder what he would say when he is faced this little face if he says NO.