Another Long Weekend.

This weekend coming we have another public holiday. So we are off camping!

There weather is starting to get cooler, mainly at night, the daytime still likes to confuse us and get hot! But the cooler nights mean a campfire at our campsite!! One thing i am most looking forward to.

So today i am organising some of our stuff for camping, mainly clothing and food. Ben has already got the equipment ready. Fishing rods were first done on his list, closely followed by the tent and cooking utensils! He is very excited about fishing. Although we have never had a great deal of luck fishing where we are going, but you never know this weekend just may be our weekend for fishing. And surprise surprise, the weather forecast is for some showers. Wouldn't be a normal camping trip for us unless we have the possibility of rain! At least now we don't get our big summer storms, that season has passed.

The little boys are excited, cowboy keeps asking every morning when he wakes up if we are going camping today. He gets very upset when i tell him its not today.. He will hit the roof with excitement tomorrow morning!

Anyway I'm off to get organised, my camera batteries are charging so i will have some photo's to show you!
Hope you all have a great weekend :-)

Another week been and gone.

Once again, another week has gotten away on me. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day and days in a week!!

I had my girly time away on the weekend. It was fantastic. Something i was needing i think. 2 nights away playing board games, a few drinks (maybe 1 to many for me) and some movies ( both of which i didn't watch, fell asleep on both). The Hens afternoon party on Saturday was excellent. Lots of games and some yummy cocktails. They bridesmaids even organised a male topless and pant less ( he was wearing a g-string) waiter for the hen!! We then went on to a holiday unit for some relaxing and some fun.
Then Monday morning it was time to come home. I did think about my boys while i was gone, but didn't miss them as much as i thought. Probably because i knew the boys would not give me a second thought, being able to have a BOYS weekend with daddy! As it thought they had a blast with daddy!!!

This morning we all did some gardening work together





We planted some winter seedlings in our old laundry tub garden.




Ben extended our big vege garden to pant the rest of them as well as some garlic. (note the potato plants going mad in the rest of that particular garden, i hope we get heaps from them!!)


My wonderful husband not only kept the boys happy and amused while i was gone, but kept up the clothes washing for me as well as keeping the whole house clean and tidy(isn't he wonderful!). So today i did not have as much to do. So decided it was time to re-organise the pantry. It's been getting worse by the day and I've been putting it off, which just makes it worse as its the cupboard most frequented in the whole house.



So this is the BEFORE...






TA - DA, the AFTER

The boys of course helped me out, and i must say i feel alot better after having done it. I have a smile on my face now every time i open the pantry door!!

It's bed time for me now. I hope you all had a great weekend as well!

A long week

I've been slack this week and haven't done any post since last sunday... It has been a long week for us though.

I felt off most of the week, mostly, i think, stressing about future plans and trying to control the boys fighting habbits...

Ben had a great time with his course, learnt heaps. He came home with a few ideas for us. A move maybe on the cards for our family. We are going to sit for awhile until the end of the year, and see what has turned up job wise for ben. Other big decisions were whether to sell our house or rent it out when we move, and if i need to go back to work for the move to be possible. We decided (with much convincing from me) that holding on to our house would be better in the long run, so we don't have to start all over again in that department. And i am going to have to go back to work. We have enough money until i finish my course, but that wont be until the end of the year, so i will earn and learn at the same time lol!

Inbetween all of the decisions, i did recieve my seeds in the mail, and plant a few of all of them!! I'm so excited, some of the brocoli and cauliflower are already popping up!! And made special cards and cookies for the boys PA who had a birthday last thursday. We have had a pretty lazy weekend, had a birthday lunch for pa yesterday, done a little bit of gardening inbetween showers.. The ground is too wet for us to do anything today, so we get another rest from the garden!

Tomorrow starts another busy week, I'm shipping the boys off to my mums for awhile so i can get a hair cut. Can't wait! We are all going to get our Swine flu Vaccinations. We have our fortnightly shopping to do on tuesday (might ship the boys off to granny's for that one, Please Granny? hehe). Next weekend i am going to Ben's cousin's hens party/weekend. I am really looking forward to that one. 2 nights away with the girls!

Anyway its time to find some motivation and clean my kitchen... But i can' sit down and enjoy a piece of chocolate cake after!! (my reward!)

Hope you've all had a great week and weekend

I love my Slow Cooker.

I have finally pulled my Slow Cooker out for its first dinner of the year! Ben is away this weekend doing a Mine Induction Course. He is wanting to get a job in the mines. So this is a helpful step towards that. We stayed at home while he went down, and stayed out our close friends house. ( A good test for me to see how i will go when he is working away for a couple of weeks. Luckily this course only goes for 2 days!)

Friday night went good, as we got to see him before he left. We had pizza's for dinner, which kept the boys busy. Saturday was a very whingy day for the boys, I'm trying to cut out or at least cut down Blue Eye's sleep, so he will sleep better at night for us. So they were both all over the place. Until Blue eyes crashed on the lounge for a 20 min nap!! Dinner time was a disaster, why i chose to experiment is beyond me, i didn't like it very much, but the boys thought it was yummy. And trying to cook it without Ben helping controlling the fighting in the background gave me mixed emotions!





My wonderful Slow Cooker


So tonight, we are having something cooked by my beloved slow cooker!! I really should use it more often. But need to organise our meal plan so i can have recipe's to follow and know what i need to buy when we go shopping. (i have about 20 slow cooker recipe's marked out in my slow cooker cook book, and i need to choose which ones to use...)




Something simple for dinner, Sausages, with a tin of diced tomatoes, an onion and some garlic. I will probably serve it with mash potatoes. Can't wait sounds yummy.


Ben's dad is dropping in today on his way through to work in Brisbane. The boys (especially Cowboy) are on edge waiting for him to turn up. They keep checking every half our or so, out the front door. Wishing upon his arrival only to see his car is not out the front yet.. Poor boys. They don't get to see Ben's dad very often, he lives a couple of hours north of us, and is working away from home. And with us being busy alot of the time as well, it is hard to co-ordinate catch-ups. (this is another reason for me staying at home this weekend, so the boys can catch up with there grandad).

Is it dinner time yet??? The only problem with slow cookers is the lovely smell it puts through the house.. mmmmmm Love it!!

Hope your having a great weekend :-)

Our Edible Garden is Growing.

This morning I took a look around our garden and noticed our edible items are growing!!




I'm awaiting some seeds to emerge to extend our edible garden...



Our lemons are finally ripening.



Our Eggplant has lots of Eggplants growing. We had to tie it up to the fence so it didn't tople over!




Our Sweet potatoes, potatoes and more eggplant plants are getting bigger.




I have 2 Basil plants in pots, last year they did great, this year not so well. But i am now finding baby Basil plants popping up everywhere. In the garden and around the garden edging. We love Basil so they will definetly get used up!





I ordered some more seeds off ebay last week. I'm just waiting now for them to turn up so i can plant some more seeds and expand our edible garden even more. Can't wait!!

Our Very Busy Easter Sunday.

Our Easter Sunday started late Saturday night.





Excited much!!

First we had to leave out some goodies for the Easter bunny. But it had to be outside at the bottom of the stairs. Cowboy was a little worried that the bunny was going to actually come into our house while he was sleeping..





Midnight feast for the bunny!





So once the boys were finally in bed sound asleep, i set to putting some footprints up the stairs to show the bunny had been.. (Yes i know they get bigger, and i don't actually know what a bunny print looks like so i guessed. The boys don't know either yet so they thought nothing of it, this year anyway!)





And here is what the Easter bunny left at our house.


The boys woke early on Sunday, thinking it was a normal morning. Until Ben reminded them what we had left out..





One very happy boy! They both plowed into the chocolates, eating 1 small egg and 1 big egg at 6.30 AM!!!!!!


We then got ready and went for breakfast at my parents house with my brother, his partner and kids.

They had an Easter egg hunt and received some more chocolate and some socks and undies from Nanny and Grandad. As well as a very yummy cooked breakfast.




Then it was time to play, in the dirt first..





Then in the sand pile.. My mum said when they moved to this house 2 months ago, that she will NOT be putting in a sandpit for the grand kids. But the grand kids kept playing with the dirt around the cement area, putting it all over the cement. So she gave in and got a pile of sand for them to play in. And of course they love it!

We then went home for a rest, a big rest! Then decided to take the boys to our local duck ponds (park with big ponds, with ducks and turtles to feed, paths to ride bikes on and playgrounds). So they could burn off some chocolate!! We took some dinner with us to cook up on the public bbq's. It was a great way to end such a wonderful day. The boys had a blast playing and riding their bikes/scooter around the park!

Today is somewhat of a rest day to get over our big Easter Sunday, although i am about to bake some choc chip cookies to use up some of the chocolate sitting in the fridge... There is ALOT!!!

Hope you all had a great Easter as well! :)

It's amazing what you find in your cupboards!

This morning i had a quick tidy up of our bedroom cupboard. And i stumbled across my soap collection. It's not a huge collection, well not anymore. When i was a young girl, my mum and grandmothers would by me nice soaps to put in my clothing draws. Before i new what a collection was and reasoning behind having them in my draws, i would play with them and use them to wash my dolls.. As i grew older i realised why i shouldn't have done that, but hey that's what life is about, learning!!

So this is what I'm left with. I haven't purchased any for ages, and when we moved i put them in a bag and they disappeared into the cupboard and i forgot about them. But now they are found i am putting them back in my draws. And will now be on the hunt for more soaps to add to my collection. I love the different shaped soaps. Like my dolphins, flowers, cats etc. But they do not have as much smell as the normal block of soap.




Yummy smelling soaps.





I gave these ones a battering, played with them alot, lol.

My MIL makes soap, but it feels so good that i haven't been able to put any aside for my draws!!
I love finding hidden goodies in the back of my cupboard, What have you got lurking in your cupboard??