2015....ok....I'm getting ready for you....slowly.

I have been away from the farm for 5 weeks and I have come home to an overgrown jungle. It's amazing how much the rain affects things, and how much better the landscape is once we get some. The property goes from depressing and dusty, to lush, green and full of life. The rain has been wonderful. The tanks are full, the dam is overflowing and  there is lots of grass in the paddocks and the cows are looking full and happy. LOTS of weeding to be done... This arrowroot plant has more than doubled in size in 5 weeks and is now over 2 metres tall!

 

Everything has grown so much, Damian got back to the farm 2 weeks earlier than me, and he came home to our small front yard looking like this:

My gardens are in there somewhere! He even resorted to bringing in the heavy artillery to bring the grass down to a mow-able level.

I have managed to make a small dent in the weeding, and the grass is back to being nice and mowed, now with the added benefit of being green and lush. The rain makes the weeds fairly easy to pull out as well, even though when I was weeding yesterday I got stung by a nasty wasp...nevermind, I am loving the rain! In the 2 years we have been here, the only good rain we have had was from the floods in Jan 2013, so to have had some regular rain, and to have our tanks full again has been fantastic.
While down in Brisbane, we made the house quite Christmassy and even put up a few outside lights this year!

It was  Grace's 1st birthday party on the weekend, this first year has gone so quickly. It was ridiculously hot, but Grace had a great day.

We did a visit to Lollipop Land at Old Petrie Town before coming home, I took Kasey and her best friend Bethany for a day out. It is about "Lollipop Land" a town of the North Pole where all of the lollies and sweet things are made for the world at Christmas time. It is only held for a few more days, so if you haven't had a chance, go and see the displays before they disappear, as they won't be back until the end of the year. The show is put on by doll maker Chris Boston, and visual display artist Jule, from Whimsical Imaginings.

So, now we're back at the farm and Kasey is back at school next week... Time to get back in to the swing of things and see what 2015 brings...

Icecream, Renovations and keeping busy

Geez, I'm exhausted today...I went a bit overboard this morning while I was feeling motivated and did lots of things, and wore myself out..lol....Did some dusting, vacuumed and mopped the floors, did the washing, and caught up on some phone calls that had to be made, booked the pest control for next week and ordered some candle making and skincare making supplies.  Over the weekend, I cleaned out the pantry as it was getting quite messy in there, so it's all tidy and organised again now. I also cleaned out the top drawer of our vanity unit in the ensuite, will do the other 2 as I feel like it. Damian pulled out Toni's shelving out of her cupboard on Saturday in preparation for the new shelving coming in. After he did that, I got to work painting it, so it would all be ready. The painting in there was finished on Sunday with the painting of the gloss on the trims. The new shelving for Michael's room arrived this morning, and is now installed.

I just have to paint the plasterboard door now to match the walls and then we are just waiting for the new carpet to be installed. School holidays here, so we made some ice cream this morning in the ice cream maker. We haven't used it before, so we just made up a basic vanilla ice cream, it's very yummy and very creamy, much nicer than bought...it comes out as soft serve, and we can put it in a container in the freezer for firmer icecream.

I made pumpkin soup in the slow cooker today, and have made a loaf of bread in the breadmaker to have with it

Got to sit down tomorrow and work out some activities for the school holidays so Kasey doesn't go stircrazy. She would like her friends to come over and play, so I need to work that out with their Mum's as to what day suits. We're going to spend a day out this week and go to the movies and have lunch out, and other than that I want her to have a break as they all get a bit worn out towards the end of each term. So lots going on to keep me busy, but will take it a little easier tomorrow after a busy day today.

Our day at the zoo......

We ended up having nice enough weather to go to the zoo today.  It was looking very "iffy" this morning, but Kasey was really looking forward to going, so we risked it and it ended up being a good day. 

This peacock put on a lovely display for us when we got there...he waited until I took the photo, and then retracted his feathers....very thoughtful...thankyou Mr Peacock!

Toni...you are always so bright and bubbly, and we love that about you....

 I patted the Alpacas...this one spat on my hand....eeewwww...it stank...their spit smells like it comes from the other end, not out of their mouth....

Kasey was mesmerised by the baby chickens 

Toni "drinking" from the fountain...a trick of the eye... 

Patting the wallabies

And feeding the deer's

 Awww...cuddling a koala...

 This cow was hilarious, it was chasing everyone around wanting their food, and ended up stealing Kasey's bag of food...bag and all, and promptly swallowed it before anyone knew anything about it....lucky it's a paper bag....!!!

Kasey and Hannah feeding and patting the kangaroos

We invited one of Kasey's oldest friend's along as well, they have been friends since toddlers at daycare. We came back here for a swim after the zoo as it was quite hot, and Hannah didn't end up going home until about 8.30 tonight, so they should both sleep well tonight, come to think of...so should I !!!

Organising the organisation manual....

I have today started to fill out my home organisation manual that I was sent by a fellow ss member. It is very comprehensive...so far I have printed out an a4 calendar showing school terms, pupil free days and public holidays for the year. This is page one of the manual. I have also noted down in the appliance section details of the fridge so I could make a note of the part number for the water filter for the fridge, so I can thrown the old one out that has been sitting on my sink for nearly a week. Now I will be able to order the correct cartridge number when required. I have also started to list the details of the cards in my wallet in the cards list. Hopefully, between this, and the flylady control journal which I hope to start putting together over the next few days some time, will ensure that things really start to get sorted, and I can get over the Non routine part and start to actually flow from one day to the next without being a bit aimless. It's a start, which is the main thing. Depending on the weather tomorrow, we will be going to the zoo for the day. They have lovely park grounds where you can sit and have a picnic lunch, or cook a BBQ. I have invited one of Kasey's friends to come with us for the day, so if the day isn't good for going out, they should have a fun day together playing here. Anyway...bed time I think...

Xmas 2010

We had a lovely Xmas Day.  Kasey was awake a little after 5am....Mum was awake with Kasey at this point, I went in to wake up Toni at about 6am...I thought I would jump on her bed to wake her up....but tripped over her shoes on the way to her bed, landed on the corner of the bed and then bounced and landed on the floor on my arm and shoulder...very funny at the time, I did end up with a heat pack on my arm and shoulder all day on Boxing Day though.... we then spent the morning opening gifts and we had home made waffles and icecream and maple syrup for breakfast...it was the first time I had used the waffle maker so the first couple were a failure, but once I worked it out, it made some yummy fluffy waffles which were very well received.  After this we headed down to Damian's family for lunch, and came home about 6pm.  All of my hand made gifts were very well received, especially the chilli jam...We were all pretty worn out and spent Boxing Day just relaxing at home and having fun with our new gifts. We have spent the last few days just relaxing....watching a few movies and just being very lazy.  The weather has been pretty wet and horrible, so a good time to spend time inside and catching up on some rest. I have been making notes on the gifts I made this year, so I can organise next year as the year progresses....Xmas Day at home might be on the cards for next year I think....we'll see what pans out....Damian heads back to work tomorrow, so I will have to start making some plans for the rest of the school holidays....