Washing Day

It was earlier this week, but I love washing day! Especially when there is a really sunny day and the clothes dry quickly so everything gets done in a day.

From chaos:

Comes order and tranquility!
I find folding and sorting washing very soothing... call me crazy, but it relaxes me!

PS can anyone tell me why some of my photos go sideways like the above? It's really annoying, and I can't work out why... the saved picture on my computer is landscape, as it should be above... even more annoying is that one picture worked, but the other didn't! Help would be appreciated!

Ah!

Apart from reading at night before I go to sleep, I haven't really just sat down and read a book during the day and relaxed and enjoyed the moment. I decided today was the day, however, as I started my new mission for updating Nell's Book Corner... so, I made my hot chocolate, grabbed a couple of mint slices and made a comfortable spot on the couch and started "The Shack".

I got a couple hours of solid reading in (in between looking after Amy, but she was good, and happy to let mummy read!) and managed to get half way through.

I've missed reading and just loved getting absorbed in the story, which is hard to do when you only read for half an hour or something, before falling asleep at night!

Thanks to Vaughn for his 3 pastoral visits this afternoon and to Amy for her good naturedness that allowed me to get my fix!

Books, Books, Books!

I'm very excited about all the books to read... as per my previous post! So, in my enthusiasm, I've decided to set up a blog called "Nell's Book Corner", where I will write specifically about the books I am reading/have finished. If you'd like to follow along, click here for the link! I'm looking forward to updating you on how I go... and hope it might keep me accountable to actually get reading and finish some books so I can do a write up on the blog!

(Am looking forward to the cold days and/or nights in the coming months where I can curl up with a great book, a delicious cup of home made hot chocolate and chilax... that's my favourite time to read... even better with the rain heavy outside!)

"New" Hairdo

Ignoring the tired mummy look around the eyes (!), here's a picture of my "new" hairdo. I was at the hairdressers this morning and although the cut is fairly similar to what I normally get, I decided to get a few darker foils as well... I quite like the subtler difference. What do you think?

Waterbaby

As soon as she was old enough, I took Amy to her first swimming lesson. We are coming up to the end of her first block of 8 weeks and each week she is enjoying the water more and more. I love getting in the pool with her. A friend's mum took some photos during Amy's first lesson and here they are. If you notice that the other faces are blurred, I did that to ensure everyone else remained unrecognisable.

Amy's 1st Swimming Lesson

My Amy's Room

As I was feeding Amy in her room recently, I was looking around and thinking how much I love her room. Aside from the fact that it's her room and we have a beautiful daughter to fill it, here are a couple of other reasons why I love it:


I decorated these letters myself, after getting the idea from a friend. These now hang on her door.


All of Amy's books - some are gifts given to her for her birth/baptism and some are a collection of books I had when I was a little girl - a mixture of old and new - I love it!


Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, I haven't had to buy any clothes for Amy since before she was born and won't have to until she is 1 or so. I'm actually jealous of all her clothes - she has so many that I can barely rotate them enough so she can wear them before she grows out of them!


Amy's first pair of shoes/crocs! Amy's cousin saw them and asked her mum to buy them for her, even though they are still a little big for Amy to be wearing yet. They are so adorable and gorgeous!


Amy's bassinett is now full of all her teddies. The ones on the left are a collection of Vaughn's and my old teddies and the ones on the right are gifts for Amy... and this isn't even exhaustive... there are other teddies/plush toys around the house that Amy plays with! So cute!

And that's what was running through my head when I was feeding Amy! I thought I'd share!

High Expectations!

For those that know me well, I L-O-V-E reading! My only problem is I just don't have enough time to read everything I want to! After purchasing 4 books from church just last weekend, I put very high expectations on myself to get through them all... not to mention the growing pile of other books I hope to get through! I won't leave them all on my nightstand... but here's the pile at the moment:

I'm just so excited! I've started reading Hot Chocolate For Couples... which the author only suggests reading once a week, so some of the other books can be used for devotions during the week. Vaughn and I both love the cover of that one:

and even better, it comes with a recipe for a "Homemade Hot Chocolate" Mix. Being a chocolate fanatic, I decided to try it out and it was quite delicious! The recipe is as follows:

8 quarts powdered milk (after much googling, I discoved this is 8 cups for the Aussies!)
1 pound Nestle Quick
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
4 tablespoons cocoa
7 ounces Coffeemate (coffee whitener)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl; store in airtight container. Add 1/2 cup mix to very hot water.

As you can see from the quantities, it makes quite a lot! I think I'll have a cup on the evenings I read a chapter... seems fitting, especially with the cooler nights!

Getting back to my dilemma of too much to read and not enough time, my favourite magazine arrived in the mail today! I love when it arrives all new and colourful. It's the first and only magazine I've ever subscribed to and it has everything I need in it and nothing of what I don't want (all the celebrity goss etc... I can catch up on that at the hairdressers or a waiting room!).

So is it any wonder that I don't blog as often as I should!? LOL

And I'm Playing Too! 5 Things

5 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
My first mother's day in May
Amy's first birthday in August
Finding out where the church will be sending us in 2011 - hopefully Oct/Nov
Vaughn's ordination in December
My Aunty Ellen's visit (hopefully!) for Vaughn's ordination


5 Things I Did Yesterday:
Took Amy to "Baby Bop"
Did fruit and veg shopping at the Central Markets
Had afternoon tea with a friend (who I also did the first 2 and last point with!)
Updated a PowerPoint Presentation for Vaughn for church
Did cross stitching at the UFO (Un-Finished Objects) night for Sem Wives

5 Things I Wish I Could Do:
Have a couple solid hours sleep during the night, like I used to before Amy started waking up more!
Visit relatives - either in Victoria or the USA - without effort or cost
Find out now where we are being placed next year
Click my fingers and have friends' dreams come true
Read and cross stitch at the same time (my mum would probably suggest an audio book for that reason, but it just isn't the same!)


5 Places I'd Like to Travel:
USA
Europe
Victoria (Hamilton, Melbourne and Wangaratta)
South America
QLD

5 Cool Things I've Found Online Lately:
How boring am I? I haven't found anything recently... I obviously don't surf the web enough!

The Present!

So, where are we at now in our busy lives? Here's an overview:

me - still on maternity leave and loving motherhood. I'm a little more tired than usual as Amy hasn't been sleeping well, but overall, I'm great! I've just recently become an Avon Representitive. I don't have high expectations of making lots of money... I just felt like doing it as a hobby and to get some cheap products. I can't believe how busy my life has become - who has time for work!? I'm still heavily involved in "Sem Wives" and am trying to get some procedures sorted out so that when we leave next year, people know what's going on and don't have to re-invent the wheel, which tends to happen each year. I try and get to mother's group each week and take Amy to "Baby Bop" and swimming lessons once a week, so you can see how my weeks fill up!

Vaughn - still on Vicarage and loving it. He's over half way through now, which is amazing! We are in the middle of Lent, so a busy time for him. Vicarage finishes in May and it will then be back to study for 2 trimesters. God Willing, he'll graduate at the end of November and then ordained at the beginning of December. In the meantime, we will hopefully find out where we are being placed for next year in October or November. We can't wait!

Amy - our gorgeous little bundle of joy, although little may not be quite the word to use anymore! She is getting quite big! At her 6 month check up/immunisations, she was 7.3kg. She is quite mobile now - she hasn't started crawling on her hands and knees, but she's taught herself to commando crawl and she can move! She's recently started to sit upright properly, without toppling over straight away. Amy is now on 2 solid feeds a day, after her milk feeds and she loves the solids! We are slowly working through new foods, some she likes more than others, but it seems pears are her favourite! She hasn't been sleeping as well as she previously did... we think she is teething, which really bothers her at night, but you don't really know until a tooth pops through! We keep checking, but nothing yet... I'm sure it's not too long now, but we'll just have to wait and see!

And I think that brings us fully up to date! As always, I hope I can now keep this current, but we'll see how we go! Thanks for your patience!

Big Catch Up!

Wow! It's been way too long since I've updated my Blog... I'm SO SORRY! The last few months have been crazy busy, but we've survived! Here's a very brief summary of what's been going on (each photo takes you to a link to the web album and more photos):

Vaughn, Amy and I were in our first "Living Nativity" at Lobethal, being Joseph, Jesus and Mary respectively (16th Dec):

Living Nativity 2009

Amy had her first solids feed (19th Dec):

Amy's 1st Feed

We celebrated Amy's first Christmas and were blessed to have the Hartwich family visit (Mum, Dad, Philip, Ben and his partner, Rachael) (23-28 Dec):

Christmas 2009

Amy met her cousins for the first time, and went to the zoo with them (where we 'sort of' saw/met Wang Wang and Funi, but not very well!) (28 Dec - 1 Jan):

Amy meets her cousins Dec 09

Amy met another great aunt and uncle, along with a visit from Nanny and Pa and shared her first beach experience with them (1-10 Jan):

Amy's First Trip to Beach

After all that (phew!) we needed a holiday! So, we visited our good friends (and Amy's godparents) in Wangaratta, travelling via Hamilton and Melbourne:

Holiday to Wangaratta (via Melb)

So that was the last couple of months... very briefly! I'll do a separate entry for where we are at now.