Bargain in the Blood

I love buying secondhand.

I get a thrill out of finding a bargain and saving. I remember as a uni student always having nice clothes but only ever buying everything from a cheaper store, and still looking just as good. Back then I wasn't so into op shopping but now its all I ever do!

Recently I purchased something for my children that is retail $200 that I got for $30. My husband is a lucky man 💕  for getting a girl like me I think. Hahaa but seriously I have inherited this savvy way of life from my incredible grandmother. She taught me from a young age the value of money ( as well as from my dad and grandfather - they have money saving in their blood!) and how to live successfully with a business mind. Grandma will be 89 years old this month and I have been preciously blessed to have her in my life as a guide. I hope to make her proud even when she passes on. The amazing thing is she would have to be the most generous person I know. Still to this day she sends me birthday money (I'm 31 for goodness sakes) and will more then often pop a nice amount of money in our bank account "for the kids" as she knows life right now is tight. What a beautiful example of giving - I want to be like her in so many ways.

In other thoughts, I've recently introduced no more plasticware in our house for the children.  I have come to learn that having the children use glassware and crockery at the young ages of almost 6, almost 4 and just turned 2 is a really useful thing. There have been no smashes so far and its been at least a month that we've made the change. Sariah the 2 year old has not broken one thing and I give her the daily task of taking her dishes to the sink after each meal, along with her older brothers. They've smashed things in the past by accident and have naturally learnt they don't want that to happen again. I never had to yell at them or make them feel bad they just figured it out. A glass smashing for a little kid is pretty terrifying. If it was a plastic cup or bowl constantly falling on the ground that never broke they would never learn the need to be careful and control themselves. It has been interesting to watch and observe how good they are at taking care of things since this change.

This all comes from the educational background Maria Montessori encouraged and I have been testing and trialing all areas of her methods in our home for some time now. All I have is praise!

Children can do more then we give them credit for that's the biggest message. I love being a mother to my children and educating myself in how to do them better everyday, its the greatest work I can ever achieve so why not push myself.

No more plastic! But I wonder how much money I will save in the end...

😊

Lately

Recently I've been sick, and have been forced to just stay at home - like don't go anywhere with all the kids all week. That is usually not what we do here but lately I've loved it. I was talking to a school mum who has 3 kids and no car during the day as hubby takes it. I thought how the heck do you deal?? She said she loves it, everyday is slow paced the house gets cleaned and she's always baking. You really can't catch up on much if you are running around all week just to keep the littlies entertained at playgroup, swimming, shops, appointments etc.

So I've embraced it and am loving it!

This past weekend was so lovely and easy going. Friday night began with movie night of course, with Peter Pan as the screening :) they all loooooove it so much. Then we went on a beautiful family bike ride Saturday. Normally we would go local on a saturday morning but this time we went out of our neighbourhood to the coastline in town. It was amazing! The boys were so fast and john and I just cruised. Even Asher was saying to everything he saw 'everything is so beautiful!'.... we rode past some war memorial sites and explored as well as watched model aeroplanes take off and loop at the club that was on the bike path. Two happy little boys enjoyed that!

Our saturday ended with lovely friends of ours with (6 grown adult children of their own) who came and babysat for us. Johnny and I had a treat of dinner and gelato and a movie - which i fell asleep in of course... can't keep me up past 9pm these days hahaa.

Sunday we enjoyed being together at church, Asher has been trying so hard to sit still and quietly during classes which is defenitely not his normal way of life but very good for him to learn at the age of 5. He won the little class reward for his efforts and was so proud!

That afternoon daddy took the boys fishing and mummy and sariah stayed home to rest...and in such a cliche way we played tea parties for almost an hour...she just is drawn to that make believe thing with doll's and tea cups - we loved it.

In other news sariah is completely toilet trained wahoooo! I feel like super woman 😄

Such a blessing to stay home everyday with my babies and soak all of this in.

xx

Easter time!

I am so excited!

The biggest most anticipated long weekend of the year is only 4 more weeks away -- Easter! We have so many beautiful memories since having our first child of this time of year. Having made so many traditions - Easter brunch, new pjs, class gifts, dyeing eggs to list a few - its even more exciting every year it comes around as they are just a little older. The kids seem to understand more of the story and reason we celebrate, it makes the whole season wonderful as I see they are 'getting it'. They are just so much more aware of everything and makes the whole thing even more fun!

We love to have a count down to Easter with a little advent like activity and treat a day along with reading our favourite Easter story.

I love to collect as many Easter books as I can from the library in the month leading up to it and we read all kinds of funny bunny stories, stories about eggs and chicks and spring and new life. It is such a lovely feeling and we are all so excited everyday for the Easter Bunny to arrive with all the glorious chocolate of course!

I found these cute egg hunt signs this week at Target for only $5 -- there was a whole stack of good things but this was something I didn't want to walk away from. Defenitely something to keep in my Easter box of collections.

Happy celebrating and preparing and dreaming of mountains of chocolate ♡

x

Extension work

I recently discovered this website with simple curriculums for the primary school years. It's fantastic with guiding you to know where to start with extra learning at home in addition to what's happening in the classroom.

http://www.cambridgeschool.eu/en/curriculum-learning/documents/

I don't know why but I have known our eldest needs more then just the basics when it comes to learning - he thinks differently and stretches further then most children his age. Sounds like I'm just a proud parent but I have notice this difference in him since he was about 15 months old when he could look at something he had never seen before - like a television - and work out how to turn it on/off without anyone showing him where the buttons were...and so many other little things he could work out before he was even previously exposed to them -- huge complicated puzzles at 20 months old and matching and memory games which became too easy for him and boring by the time he was two. He was talking in full blown proper sentences long before his toddler peers (and his later born siblings) then learnt how to ride a bike without any coaching at all - he just got on it and started riding - then it was the same with swimming...just one day figured it out without one lesson ever.

I guess this is just normal and everyone is different but with all of this I have really wanted to present extension activities to him -- sometimes this has caused me stress, it all is a lot more work then just doing the bare minimum day after day - ie turning the tv on and leaving it at that.

So now that he has started school, I am trying hard to keep on top of the extension activities he could be experimenting with. Right now life feels like I'm just keeping my head above water -- 2 other little ones at home and lots of sickness running through our familiy lately has worn me out. Just keeping it together is usually the feeling we are experiencing. So one day I found this awesome website with the curriculum for each primary school year. It is simply described and basic enough for parents to explore with their children. We hope to follow these curriculum pages with Asher and seeing whatever he is interested in.

All you need is LOVE

In the name of all things L O V E we had a little conversation around the dinner table tonight about what we love in eachother... its cute to hear what a 5 and 3 year old has to say about their siblings and lovely thoughts on their parents --

Asher loves how daddy surprises him and picks him up from school sometimes and takes him out

His favourite day ever was when he picked him up early and took him to a movie just the two of them - this happened a while ago now and he still thinks of this special day together

He loves how dad takes the boys fishing -- its the best thing ever!!

Asher loves how Jet gives him the tightest hugs everyday when saying goodbye to him at school and anytime around the house he is feeling especially happy

Jet loves how Asher lets him hold his fishing rod

Jet loves how daddy takes him fishing

Jet loves how mummy always wants cuddles and smooches

Asher loves when mummy gives him kisses and my smiling face

Asher loves how Sariah gives kisses - its soooo cute and he asks her to kiss her all the time!

Asher loves how cute sariah says "mummy, mummy, mummy" in her own funny way that we all know

Daddy said that he loves Jets cuddles and lovely kindness

Daddy loves how Asher is so helpful and is a good listener when he asks for his help

Daddy loves how thoughtful mummy is (my list of things i love about Daddy is too long for this blog ha!)

Mummy loves how Asher eats almost anything put in front of him and how much he helps her around the house.

There was a bit more I have forgotten but this little moment was happening all while eating dinner and in between "can I please have some..." and "I'm just gonna get a drink" so it was a bit of focus at the same time with lots of interruptions - but hey they are two crazy 3 and 5 year old boys.

We all felt lots of good feelings as we left the dinner table and headed for books and cuddles before bed.

As I was reading to little Sariah before bed, I had a moment of "oh no" this is nearly all over. It was like years flashed before my eyes of her now being all grown up and it made my heart sink just for a moment. She was sitting on my lap and totally engrossed in her favourite books "Sally's Secret" and "Rhymes for Annie Rose" -- baby girl will seriously sit in total silence as I read these to her with her eyes looking all over the pages. They are the sweetest books written and illustrated by Shirley Huges. A seriously good investment for your childrens library.

What a lucky girl I am to have all this love and the sweet little babies that I have been given 💗

Mastering

I'm being forced to take things really s l o w

This new routine of school pick up and drop off is a new challenge to master. I'm happy to say its all working well its just that its new and we are all getting used to it. It has been nice just to have a quiet rest at home while big brother is enjoying his school days.

I have been unwell lately, mixed with not sleeping the greatest too - has all forced me to just stop and take a breather. The house is not what it usually should look like and it gets under my skin but the kids and johnny work hard on that for me which means I'm one of the lucky ones!

Here's to another slow week at home with these babies xx

Peace

Today was a moment of pure reflection. I thoroughly enjoyed taking it all in. I haven't been sleeping well lately as i sleep so lightly when my husband leaves for work at 4am I am disturbed that I never ever fall back asleep. But even after that habit of early waking happened last night I still managed to have a peaceful sabbath today. How grateful I am for that! I was enlightened, I learnt new things about the gospel and my children were able to as well. Asher in particular commenting on how nice the music was in our house this afternoon, he was feeling the Spirit!!

Ahhh

Love those moments.

'

But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come'.
 Doctrine and Covenants 59:23

Summer Holidays

I have had a great time these summer holidays, I am so thankful for being able to actually say that. I bumped into another preschool mum today who asked how the holidays were going for us and I could happily say it has been going well and actually slipping away really fast. Sadly her experience has been the opposite, with her saying it has been a nightmare.

I realised a few things after leaving that conversation. I remembered to thank Asher for being so good every time his younger siblings are having a nap. He simply stays downstairs while I have some quiet time and listens to stories on CD or plays with lego and helps himself to the pantry. I don't mind, and find it incredible because we're talking 2 hours of naptime most days! That one simple part of the day that occurs is why our school holidays have been a breeze. Both the 3 year old and 21 month old sleep for 2 hours a day. Sometimes
1 1/2 hours instead but that simple break is heaven.

On top of that, daddy is home so much more. Sometimes home as soon as naptime is over. Now this is an absolute first in our soon to be 8 years of marriage. I am counting my lucky stars and high fiving the guardian angels who watch over me for him having such an awesome work schedule. But I have done the hard yards to get here. Out of the last 3 years with his previous employer I only saw him for 18 months. So I am beyond grateful right now.

Generally though the children have been happy grateful and fun lately. That makes my mummy heart swell. Today was an impromptu outing and i decided to take them for lunch somewhere with ice cream as a treat. Asher said while smiling, thank you mummy so much for this lovely surprise. His exact words! Almost kipping as he said it. And kept saying it while he was eating his lunch. It made me feel glad and comforted that hard days make up for these good ones.

The house is noisy, immediate chaos when their little feet hit the floor in the mornings but little things like a grateful child can smooth it all over.

I know we have really kept things simple with easy outings rather then full on day trips anywhere and even just not catching up with anyone and just doing our own thing has made for less stress and commitment. No rush to get anywhere and stress if someone is in a bad mood and we have to cancel. Its just been us and its been easy. Maybe that's a secret ingredient. They have me all to myself, well its working out fine and sadly there's only about 10 days left!

Then onto Asher starting his first year of school...

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

1. Summer holiday community activity day - the boy loves face painting!!

2. There were 3 in the bed...

3. Jet started Primary at church!

4.The Darling

5. Busy crafting

6. Busy burning energy, diy indoor snow slide

7. My cherubs on the old church piano

x