Donna Duncombe's New Blog

I'm posting over at Donna's blog tomorrow:

Drop over and join in the template challenge.

Mess or Mountain

Often I record the kids conversations on my blog. I find they're a good inspiration for layouts. I shared this story in March and I thought it would be perfect for this week's letters & words challenge at Audrey's blog. The challenge was to use a thought bubble.

I used GypsyCouture's Forget Me Not @ TDC

A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick

A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is historical fiction about the life of John Marshall. I had read Sharon Penman's novel When Christ and His Saints Slept which covers the same time frame from a different perspective so I was familiar with the main events. I really enjoyed it although disliked the pathetic Aline immensely. This is the second of Elizabeth Chadwick's books I've read and I'll definately be hunting out a few more.

Ref: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Bowling Party

We had Big Girls birthday party today. I made a pikachu cake.

We did bowling.

The Boy had to use the ramp.

Then we had food and cake.

Apparently it was the best party ever.

Sick kids

The Boy has vomited 5 times already this morning. Luckily Hubby works only 2 kms from home so he dropped home to take the girls to school. Later he picked up Hayley from school ... yes she only made it through about a hour of school before she was complaining of a sore stomach. Not sure yet whether it is an actual sore stomach or brought on by rehearsals for her play that is next week. She's currently sitting at the table eating an apple so I'm suspecting the latter.

On the other hand The Boy is definitely sick and now worn out from the constant vomiting.

I'm not too good with looking after sick kids, I tend to be a sympathetic vomiter so I usually just run in, thrust the bucket under their mouth and then flee before I start joining in. I usually take a few deep breaths then head back to give some sympathetic pats on the back before taking off again.

Harry and Us

Hubby and I watched Marley and Me last night, and yes, I did cry. It brought back memories of when Harry was a younger. We got Harry a year before Big Girl was born. He just turned 11 years old this month.

Couldn't stop laughing when they brought him home and he whined and cried the whole night. Harry did that ... he was locked in the area near our toilet ... we had to repaint where he scratched all the paint off.

I took him to dog obedience school and for the last week they had an obedience competition. Harry was so excited he jumped up and humped my leg about three times in the short walk around the square.

Hubby spent a fair amount of time one summer sewing the buttons back onto the outdoor cushions at mum and dad's holiday house.

I lost track of the number of roses and camelia's he chewed down to a stick.

He broke the birdbath playing with his friend.

Our old house had all chewed corners on the outside, we used to sit inside and hear the grinding.

He spent a week at the vet hospital and 3 weeks recovering after surgery to remove the kids skipping rope from his intestine.

We ended up having to find a keenel to put him in when we went away because he wrecked too many things over at Hubby's sister's place.

He's getting old now ...

but he still likes to get out to the park for a walk.

Who's taking who for a walk?

Make that a run. Ooh a friend.

Better got that slobber back under control.

The Boy is not impressed.

In the garden now ...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up from the library and had planned to read it after I'd read some other books but I just had a quick peak at the first few pages and was completely drawn in. The narrator is an autistic boy and the author does a wonderful job of capturing his voice. I loved the numbering of the chapters, lists and drawings. Very sad as he joins the dots on some events in his life because you know what's coming. Recommended reading.

Ref: What's in a Name Challenge, A-Z Challenge, 1% Well-Read Challenge.

Who on Earth ...

would think it is a good idea to put prep boys in white skivvies?

And a closer look.

Needless to say the napisan gets a daily workout round here. Luckily they seem to clean up alright after a night soaking.

I went out for tea last night for little sis's birthday. We went to the bar @ The Press Club. Awesomely yummy greek food but as usual my brother ordered heaps and we ended up walking out feeling a little ill from over indulgence. Highly recommended ... the bar ... not overeating.

Jessica Sprague is running a free course again this year. I did her Telling Stories course last year and it was excellent. I'm thinking I'll probably sign up for this year's Photo Editing.

Junior Chef

Although I'm not sure what the Snow White cape is for ... maybe his apron?

Fly High by Donna Duncombe

Donna has a new kit out which is available as part of a digi duo over at nuts4digi.com.I did a layout using Donna's kit for the nuts4digi scraplift challenge.

Queens Birthday Weekend

We went down to Pt Lonsdale for the Queen's birthday long weekend. When we got down there we found that the fence was currently pulled down to be replaced. It was supposed to be finished so we had to leave Harry in the shed overnight. Luckily I'd planned to go back home with Hayley for Alpha and Kids Church on Saturday night so I took Harry back with me. We stayed the night, fed him in the morning and then went back down again. Hayley had a great time Saturday night, it was her birthday celebration and she got them to do the Happy birthday song in chipmunk ... apparently it was "hilarious". We had organised for the twins to go too and without any preplanning the fourth girl from their cabin on camp also turned up ... she normally goes to 11AM. So the four of them got to catch up and also saw Jenny who used to run after school care at school and one of their cabin leaders was also their ... the excitement levels escalated.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with plenty of relaxing. We went for a walk to the pier ...

and the park ... yes they are my crazy kids going head first down the slide.

We did lots of lazing by the open fire.

With snacks ...

and wine ...

some good books ...

and a permanently attached iPhone for Hubby.

My Big Girl also turned 10 on Monday ... yes that's right double digits ... where did the time go?

and we couldn't miss our family tradition ... the pancake cake.

Not the Response I Hoped For

I got the kids some new devotionals yesterday, so last night was the first read of them. I helped Big Girl with hers. It was all about a clean heart and taking out the trash in our lives ... ie wrong attitudes etc. So anyway, I asked Big Girl what rubbish in her life needed to be thrown out ... her response ... The Boy.

Clearly we need to do a bit more work on this one.

Safety First and Night Fears

The Boy always asks to walk through the back gate when we're picking the girls up from school.

The Boy: Can we go in the back gate?
Me: No we're not allowed to go through that gate and we will not ever be going through the back gate.
The Boy: Other people go through there.
Me: It's not safe because you walk through the car park and we don't do things that aren't safe.
The Boy: I do things that aren't safe. Like I play with sticks and I throw rocks.
Me: Hmmm ...

I suppose I should be happy that he remembers what we've told him is unsafe but it would be better if he actually took that into account.


Surprisingly The Boy does have some fear. He used to be petrified of the rat that used to live in the roof at the old house. It would tap on the light fitting in the kitchen at night and he would wake up screaming. He would not be happy until he had gone and turned on the light which seemed to scare the rat away.

He was also scared of the possums ... if you live in Melbourne you would understand this ... they make the worst hissing noise at night. Many nights we would be up with him crying about the possums. They don't seem to be as big a problem at our new house, I think I've only heard them a couple of times since we've been here.

Now his bed buts up close to the window in his room and he doesn't like the blind to gape at all so we have a nightly ritual which involves pushing the bed hard up against the wall and wedging one of his teddies between the bedhead and the blind. The other night it was lion's turn.

Serious Concentration

from the Little Girl. The reader ... a familiar ritual to all the parents of early primary out there.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful read that deserves to be listed as a YA classic. A little bit Austen but not quite so formal. Populated by a cast of eccentric characters, the narrator is a charming 17 year old girl, Cassandra. The characters are well developed and always interesting, the story doesn't follow the happy ever after formula and at the end it left me wondering what was next for the characters - always a sign of a good read.

Ref: What's in a Name, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I Scored 2 Weeds and Wildflowers Coupons

A couple of weeks back I picked up a $5 coupon for my entry in WW weekly photo prompt challenge. So last week I went shopping and got HodgePodge#10

Yesterday I found out my page had been picked for the weekly inspiration challenge. This is it:

So I got to go shopping again, this time with a $10 voucher. I picked up the Life365 templates (sometimes you just want to get the photos on the page and scrapped) ... it was also on special.

It's June ...

which means it's time for the May roundup page. (Credits)

May was a month of beautiful autumn weather. There were many mild, sunny days and the leaves were finally changing colour. The gardens and dams could have done with a lot more rain though. 2 - I went to Billy Elliot with mum and the girls. We went for lunch first at an Italian restaurant mum had been wanting to try. The show was fantastic, one of the best musicals, I’ve been to. For the first week of May we struggled again with blocked sewerage and flush rationing, a call to the plumber got that fixed; I also had my regular visit to the library but started to get my pile down to a manageable size. 4 - Helped at Ethan’s class for PMP. 7- Ethan was complaining about cold legs so I picked up the long, wool socks which seemed to make him happy. 8 - Ethan had the inter-house cross country and Sara got her hair cut. 9- Andrew and Tiffany’s 40th birthday. Unbelievable party, fantastic food, entertainment and marquis all with an Italian theme (a little bit mafia), 10 - Mother’s Day. 14 - Helped out for literacy in Ethan’s class. He did really well. 15 - Morning tea with the mums from Ethan’s class followed by Hayley’s district cross country in the afternoon. 16 - Our roses are having their final flush of flowers before it’s time to prune them. Ethan was sick so the kids didn’t go to soccer. 18- Geoff flew out for China today and Ethan missed the next 2 days of school with a sore throat. 19 - Put Ethan to work since he was home, helping clean up the leaves at the front door. 20 - Excursion with Ethan to the Royal Botanic gardens. 21- A very foggy morning. 22 - Hayley had a Pyjama Party at kids church. She invited Rebecca from school and they had a great time. Lots of games with yummy prizes and some Mr Bean DVD’s. 23 - Took the kids to soccer, then at night they had to come with me to the Alpha night. They got a double dose of Kids Church this weekend. 24 - Went into mum and dad’s for lunch - roast lamb and dad made a white chocolate and raspberry sponge roll. 25 - Sara won a principle’s award at school for her maths. 26 - Canteen duty and we started a new study at small group about poverty and justice. 27 - Sara had an excursion to the NGV to see the Blake exhibition. I was disappointed that I couldn’t volunteer for that one but we had a lunch with the mum’s from her class to celebrate Fiona’s rapidly approaching due date. Went to Wildflower in Canterbury. 28 - Had a messed up day today, I’d left the washing on the line and it got wet yesterday and I forgot to bring in Ethan’s shorts. Had a mad rush to try to dry them in 10 mins so we could get to school. Semi- successful using a combo of the dryer and the iron. 29 - Met with the girls from Hayley’s year 1 class and her year 1 teacher who was visiting from London. 30 - Geoff came home, he met us at soccer. Good to have him back. 31 - Took the kids ski gear for fitting and found that last years stuff all still fits. We can go skiing without having to worry about gear at least.


Deb over at nuts4digi.com picked one of my layouts for LOTW so it's featured on the homepage this week. It was one of my SUTUCS contest layouts so I did it last month and just posted now that the contest was finished.