Thank goodness the daily puppy is updated every day...

...to make up for the lack of posting from me.

So much for those New Year's resolutions I made.

I have blog posts galore to write about such diverse topics as circuses, Pilates, prayer, adopting a new dog and books I've read recently, but they shall have to wait a little while. Hopefully this weekend there will be a window of opportunity to sit down and type something, since we are enjoying a rare month off everything on the church roster. This seems miraculous and blogworthy in itself. No music for me to play, no set up/pack up of chairs, no morning tea preparation, no kids program to organise...what on earth will we do with ourselves on Sunday mornings? Sleeping in sounds like it could be a very appealing option....

New Years Resolutions 2014

1. Blog more. There have been a few too many dust bunnies rolling around this blog for the last few months!

2. Play less stupid timewasting games on the iPad. Bejewelled has got to go. After I got myself off it for a few months, I have become addicted again over the Christmas holidays. Spelltower has also been a bit distracting, but at least I can pretend it's slightly educational and ask the kids to help me find words (you know, it's a bit like Boggle...).

3. Finish chronological Bible reading plan that I started a long time ago. I'm up to Lamentations now. Feels like the New Testament is getting closer, but there's still a lot of Ezekiel to get through before that...

4. Eat better. I've managed to keep up with exercising over the past twelve months (2-3 good long walks per week) but I've fallen back into the trap of too many sweet treats and I can feel the weight creeping back up. 

5. Enjoy work opportunities that come my way rather than stress out about them. Towards the end of last year, I resigned from my permanent part time job and am on the casual contract merry-go-round picking up different things here and there. I am about to do five weeks of filling in at my old Child Development services position working with kids and families (while they wait for the new person to start) and then I am going to be working in acute medical and surgical wards at a hospital for a few months. It's been about twenty years since I last did that, although I think that the experience I had working with older people in rehab last year will be helpful. It's good to have the chance to try out some different caseloads and see if there's somewhere else I enjoy working.

6. Learn how to use my camera properly and get some of my photos off the computer and on display!

There, that should do it...how about you guys (if there's any of you still out there reading?). What plans do you have for 2014?

Image from here.

Stormy week

This week we have had stormy weather, with a storm just about every day. Yesterday topped it off with three storms in the same day. The evening one produced small hail so it was a blessing that we were at home. We also blessed our neighbours by putting out our old hail blanket on the footpath for kerbside cleanup this week, which they used to cover one of their teenager's cars. The blanket wasn't in great shape, and the hail didn't end up being too large, but I hope it helped them out a little bit.

Our dogs have been finding it hard to deal with all the storm activity. The boy dog gets a bit barky when the thunder starts up. Telling him to be quiet doesn't work, so last night things were loud both inside and outside when the hail was coming down. 

The girl dog has a quieter type of anxiety. The curl-up-in-foetal-position-and-shake type. She likes to find an enclosed space so she feels a bit safer. We've found her hiding in the furthest corner under the kids' beds, and last night she chose the toilet for her hidey hole. At least she knew that the smallest room in the house was the safest place to be. Today we've had a relatively small storm in the afternoon, just a few thunder rumbles and a bit of rain. She's been curled up between our kitchen dresser and one of the dining room chairs the whole time. We've tried giving her cuddles and lots of reassurance but she just seems to be happy to be by herself in her enclosed space. I can relate.

The Bureau of Meteorology tells me that the run of storms is perhaps coming to an end after tomorrow. I think the dogs will be grateful. Although there seems to be more forecast later in the week, just as the First Test is getting underway in Brisbane.

Image from here.

Great library find

Chris found this book at the library a couple of weeks ago and since then, I have really been enjoying reading it with Rosie. It's quite different from some of Julia Donaldson's other well known books (eg. The Gruffalo) but it's a great book for 3-5 year old little girls. Not too many words, lots of great illustrations to fire up their imaginations, and inspiration for non-crafty types like me to make paper dolls with the kids since we have some rainy weather on the way here this week. What's not to like?

We're also big fans of some of Julia Donaldson's other books here. Stick Man and Tabby McTat have also been given a big workout this year after we gave them to Rowan for his birthday last year. 

Highly recommended reading.

Attention Rowan....

Please stop eating the dog food.

That is all.

I know he can't read this, but I do feel much better having vented about it....

Saturday night Muppets

Ah, the Muppets. It's been a while.

Posting this because one of my children is currently memorizing Jabberwocky for this term's school poetry reciting. Such a strange poem it is too...

Contemplating life's (un)important questions here...

Today I spent at least fifteen minutes gazing at the discounted wool in Lincraft wondering whether Paton's "Classic Totem" is the same as Paton's "Totem." The former was the only wool I could find in the shop with "Totem" in its name, the latter was the wool recommended in my knitting pattern (but only as a substitute for "Fireside," of which there was none at all).

After that excessive amount of contemplation (which was only possible because my husband is still on holidays and I had left the little people at home with him, after previous embarrassing episodes with a two year old pulling lots of balls of wool off the shelves) I eventually decided to risk it and use "Classic Totem." I'm going to have a go at knitting my very first tea cosy (not exactly the same as the one in the picture though, I'm using a pattern that involves three different coloured stripes).

Image from here.