30 days of thankful

Just catching up on a few days…

Captivation…

I’m watching the rain, waiting for the hail to come.

Mummy, it’s stopped raining, but it’s still cloudy and sunny there must be a rainbow

Backwards crawling…

Getting into lots of stuff now!

A clear desk

Even though it doesn’t stay that way for long

Family close by

After a few years away it’s so nice to have everyone nearby

150 cards

It’s fun to make up card kits, I think I may be addicted… thanks to Gretchen. Check out her awesome class here

The Get it Done Guy

Loved this @getitdoneguy ep. I totally identify with this! getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/how-to-be-a-su…

— Melissa Shanhun (@mshanhun) November 21, 2012

@mshanhun alas, this episode is also quite personal. I've made every mistake in it!

— getitdoneguy (@GetItDoneGuy) November 21, 2012

You

Everyone who reads and encourages me in what I’m doing. You do make a difference

I’m posting a quick thankful thought each night as part of Cathy Zielske’s 30 days of thankful project

A Day in my Life, so far

I thought it would be interesting to share my day as a stay at home/work at home Mum today.

Up early, (before Emily) to eat porridge and up and go.
Say bye to Phill
Check work emails and answer student questions on the forum as Emily eats her breakfast
Build a farmyard with Duplo, Megablocks and some other plastic blocks.
Start a load of washing
Come back to find Emily has put Grandma and Lego (the girl Duplo character) to bed
Eat 2nd breakfast, eggs and baked beans on toast and work on my website while Emily watches Peppa Pig and Playschool
Hang out the washing and love the smell of summer in the air and the cool easterly (which will no doubt be warm soon!)
Remember to check the cricket scores! :) Go Warriors
Convince Emily there are no bees so it's safe to play in the sandpit
Attempt to fold washing and talk to Emily through t he window (but go out every 2 mins due to flies, running out of water or the lid I've angled to shade her falling down
Give Emily a bath
Make lunch (salad vegies and philly, plus some nuts & dried fruit) and Emily's lunch (3 fish fingers, salad, Heinz Salad Cream, nuts and dried fruit)
Print off 3 cinnamon bun recipes and start making one of them (why do I always want to bake when it's time to mark assignments)
Put Emily to bed for her afternoon sleep (twice!)
Write this blog post
Sleep!
Mark some assignments.

Let's see how I go with that!
Melissa

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Today Emily...

Image by mshanhun via FlickrToday you wanted Aunty Lauren to read you Spot books (the same ones as last fortnight!)
Today you go Aunty Lauren to show you the clock (How long till Peppa Pig?)
Today you pretended to be a jelly fish with bunny's orange blanket on your head
Today you made the blankets into a car and went driving with bunny
Today you played by yourself happily until it was time for Peppa Pig
Today we snuggled up on the couch to watch Dorothy the Dinosaur
Today you asked "Emily wants a little taste of Mummy's fried egg"
Today you celebrated my pretend birthday again!
Today you went to bed happily until you spotted a hangnail
Today you told me "40 to seven, time for bed"

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The power of one thing

Lately I’ve been inspired to help Emily focus on one thing at a time. I’m quite easily distracted myself, so as I’m teaching Emily this skill, I find it’s also helping me.

During the past week I’ve found that having one activity set up and ready to go helps us get the day started right. Even though (or perhaps because) Emily has all her toys nicely set up in the games room, it can be hard for her to know what to do when it’s time to play.

This week we’ve done:

• Puzzles
• Colouring in/pasting shapes
• Lego
• Block
• Playing with the ‘sandcastle’ (dolls house)

At the moment our morning routine is:

1. Wake and breakfast with Daddy
2. Second serve of breakfast with Mummy
3. Pray for the day
4. Play with Mummy
5. Quiet play while Mummy reads her devotions, has a cup of tea and checks her work emails.

Some things we’ve been learning lately:

• ‘Stamping’ shapes on the carpet mat
• Teaching her how to make a tea party with toys
• Anticipating the good things in the next day to come
• Keeping sand in the sandpit
• People come and go in cars, buses, trains and planes (and they mostly visit ‘Melbourne’ when they go away)
• The built in wardrobe can also double as playgroup or the shops when Emily’s is ‘Ready to go’

An Unexpected Call: Day 4 #weekinthelife

What a day! A quick summary:

• Doctors to get on cancellation list
• Woollies (including playing on the fire engine
• Playgroup (Emily used the chalk with her left hand the whole time!)
• Working on One Little Word book
• Playdough dinosaurs
• Washing out and back in before the storm
• Writing several articles
• Finishing and uploading a scrapbook album

Today we were so excited to find out that Phill had internet access at the mine site and Emily was thrilled to see him on Skype! Phill gets back on Friday, so it will be great to see him then.

Quote of the Day

Hands are rainy! (Emily after wiping her hands over the condensation on the sliding door)

Favourite Photo

Video of the Day

Watch Emily singing to her dough-a-saurs

Emily just loved the dough-a-saurs I made for her.

See my flickr photos

See all my Week in the Life Posts here

Want to join in? You can follow along on Ali’s blog, twitter or the Flickr group to see what others are doing. Be sure to link me up to your blog in the comments – I’d love to see what you are doing for Week in the Life Posts here!

Join me again tomorrow!

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Week in the Life: Day 3 #weekinthelife

Emily stayed with the Okely’s while I was off to the dentist this morning. I’ve been going to that same dentist since I had teeth! Well the dentist has changed, as the one who treated the older two Kerr generations had retired. But it’s the same location.

I love that we have HBF so it only cost me about $20 to go. When Emily and I got home Phill was already there and we had a very early lunch. Emily was coughing in her sleep so I phoned a couple of Doctors to see if I could get her in.

Emily woke up at about 1:40 so we headed to the airport early. We were very happy to see that the new check-ins were working perfectly, with just a couple of swipes of the Q card. We ate a few snacks in the Qantas lounge and Emily was really enjoying watching the planes, but we decided to leave before Daddy boarded so that we wouldn’t be too long stuck in traffic. My shining moment of the day was snagging a couple of pieces of pizza straight out of the oven for Phill to eat (thanks Qantas lounge, the food was awesome!).

Emily watched playschool then we had a small bit of leftover butter chicken for tea, as we’d eaten a big afternoon tea at Q club.

I prepped for playgroup morning tea, spoke to Phill around 9pm from his 1 star hotel in Newman before heading to bed.

Quote of the Day

Mummy: “Where did you get that?”

Emily: “Melbourne” (she’s never been to Melbourne!)

Favourite Photo

My week in the life so far

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

See all my Week in the Life Posts here

Want to join in? You can follow along on Ali’s blog, twitter or the Flickr group to see what others are doing!
Be sure to link me up to your blog in the comments – I’d love to see what you are doing for Week in the Life!

Join me again tomorrow!

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Week in the Life: Day 2 #weekinthelife

Emily slept in this morning and ate breakfast with Daddy. Emily was not feeling too well and spent most of the morning on the couch watching television. Dumbo is quite a favourite since Aunty Skib brought her back the soft toy from the US.
I did some work on an upcoming guest blog post and prepped for Christmas in July at lunch time we heard our Kalgoorlie house finally had an offer put on it. After some negotiation we were thrilled with the outcome! Our house is under offer!
We have a celebratory dinner and enjoyed our last evening with Phill at home this week.

Quote of the Day

Creatures of the Rain and Sun, Mummy (Emily asking for a Justine Clarke song)

Favourite Photo

My week in the life so far

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
See all my Week in the Life Posts here
Want to join in? You can follow along on Ali’s blog, twitter or the Flickr group to see what others are doing!
Be sure to link me up to your blog in the comments – I’d love to see what you are doing for Week in the Life!

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Week in the Life: Day 1 #weekinthelife

I started a day early – on Sunday, since I like Sunday to be the first day of the week, plus Phill will be gone for several days this week and I wanted to include him in the photos. I was so excited to get going!

Sunday was a slow day as we’d been out late and Emily as a cold. But we all loved sitting in the sun

Quote of the Day

Tackle Daddy down!

Favourite Photo

My week in the life so far

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

See all my Week in the Life Posts here

Want to join in? You can follow along on Ali’s blog, twitter or the Flickr group to see what others are doing!

Be sure to link me up to your blog in the comments – I’d love to see what you are doing for Week in the Life!

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Mother’s Day 2011

I really enjoyed mothers day morning this year – a little different from last year when Phill was on sound at church and I had to get a little almost one year old ready by myself!

This year I had scrambled eggs and tomatoes made for me, but Phill and Emily’s plan for bringing me breakfast in bed was thwarted when I got up too early (well 7:15ish).

Emily absolutely loved the card Daddy bought for her to give to me, but had some trouble saying happy mothers day. It’s been a busy month for happy wishes:

• 7th April – Happy Birthday Mummy. Emily still often says that if she gives me something! Like the letters for eg!
• 24th April – Happy Easter Mummy (Daddy missed out on that one)
• 5th May – Happy Ann-versary Mummy (and this one too!)
• 8th May – Happy Bir- Mothers Day

Such a sweet little girl!

We managed to sit through church happily, though Emily insisted I stop singing! lol Harsh!

Emily ate lunch then had her sleep, then Phill headed off to his Aunt’s place to get some plants for our garden! Les was pulling out some Shasta daisies, agapanthas and gardenias, so we happily took them to plant by the side of our house. We are keeping all the plants together to make watering easier until we get the landscaping done. We were pushing it for time, but By 2:30 Phill and I were ready to go so we woke Emily, who ws still fast asleep!

Emily was excited to learn that it was finally time to go out and see the Okelys. Of course Grandma Okely was the guest of honour, but Emily was looking forward to seeing the other rellies too! We enjoyed high tea, had the best time chatting and my brothers took some gorgeous photos!

Just beautiful.

Melissa

New 52–Souvenirs

Only about two months ago (how time flies!?!) Phill brought us a back a couple of souvenirs From Argentina and Chile. Mine was a small, tooled-leather box from Mendoza, a city nearby to the Gold mine. I also got an alpaca wool scarf, in PINK of course.

Emily’s gifts were a giraffe puzzle with a baby giraffe (cute!) and her ‘Argentina hat’ – a bright pink beanie with an alpaca and other animals and things stitched on it!

 

Emily’s had a hard time working out that Daddy isn’t going away every time he leaves for work. She stopped asking to see Daddy on ‘puter (Skype) a couple of weeks ago. This morning for the first time since Phill has been away she told me “Daddy, gone! Work, big bus” rather than “Daddy, gone! ‘Tina!” Such a relief that she’s finally getting her head around the fact that Daddy is back to stay. 

Learn more about the New 52 challenge here. I’m finding that looking out for new experiences is helping me appreciate that my life is full of variety. What new things have you tried this week?

 

Melissa 

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Lego–Many memories

I had to laugh when Emily’s Lego Club magazine arrived with the Spinjitsu logo on the envelope. It reminded me of my dad who did jujitsu for a short while – he made it to a half-yellow belt. (I’m sure ScrappyJedi will be giggling at this point!) My dad also had an infatuation with Ask a Ninja. Maybe there’s a theme here?
My brothers have a huge collection of lego they’ve collected over the years, and I got my fair share too, I like anything that include mini-figs with hair! Castle, Ambulance and Bellville sets amongst them.
I can’t tell you the countless hours we spent playing with Lego, creating scenes, trying to make something useful out of helicopter windscreens, sorting them by colour and size into margarine containers and hardware drawers, and even once washing ALL of our Lego and Duplo in warm soapy water – after our blocks were getting dusty. It looks like new! and then Daniel also worked on creating 3D renderings of our models in POV ray and we’d visit Myer’s Lego Action shows when we could (photos here from 2003 and 2005).
Some of our earliest digital camera photos are of Lego scenes via Dad’s work’s camera. In October 2000 I created a sea-themed library display at a local boy’s school as an assignment for uni and Michael supplied the Aquanauts, boats and various bits and pieces. The boys at the school were keen to join in, and brought their models in to school too.
More recently my brother’s have collected all the Lego Bionicle movies and even got a game or two. Phill loves his Lego Starwars game. There seems to be no end to their branding opportunities, but I truly prefer the unbranded, multiuse sets, where your imagination can run free and you can match up the colours of the bricks! There used to be only one shade of each colour back in the day!
I guess we are starting Emily a little early, but I’m sure she’ll love Lego too – just so many imaginative possibilities.
Do you have a favourite Lego memory?
Melissa

Yesterday and Today–Day in our life

This week Ali Edwards encouraged us to document a day in great detail as part of the workshop Yesterday and Today Class over at Big Picture Classes.
In the spirit of not waiting for the ‘perfect day’ and we are currently sharing a camera, I decided to document Monday, when we had our tiler’s meeting for the house, and I’d have the camera there already. In my usual style I ended up with 4 pages. I never could keep to a word limit!



Credits:
Ali Edwards Template from the Yesterday and Today class
CVW SupplyTracker 
Garden Whimsy Kit by Flergs and Sugarplum Paperie
Here’s the journalling:

5:45 Heard Phill’s alarm. Phill jumps in the shower and I snooze for a couple more minutes. Then I get up and quickly dress. Ate my porridge (Phill makes it for Emily and I each morning)
I wrapped up some pita bread chips and some vegemite bread to eat on the way up.
Woke Emily at 7:45 – she was fast asleep. “Wet, Suit” – so we changed her nappy and popped on the dress I’d promised her she could wear the night before. She loves to choose what to wear.
Couldn’t convince her to eat porridge, so she had her Brownes Deluxe Mango Passion Yoghurt.
Off to our new home at 69 Timberlane for the Tiler’s meeting with our Building Supervisor (Vince) at 8am. The traffic was slow up til Perth – Canning highway is always bad with drivers pulling out without indicating etc as usual! I remembered I wanted to document this day, so started to take a few pictures.
The Mitchell Freeway was quick and we arrived at 7:38 tiler was there already. The house was cool (even without insulations) we looked around for a bit – the bath was in. Emily loves running around and checking out all the cupboards and doors. Meeting with Vince to check all the cabinetry, paint colours and tiles. The border tiles weren’t the one from the board we selected but they were the ones written on the addenda. Vince to follow up with tiles, and also check about our electricity meter number so we can get the solar panels in.
A bit before 9am Philomena from Solomon’s carpet came to do the check measure and for us to sign the paperwork for the carpet for out new house – she thought Emily was teething looking at her pink cheeks – but she was just hot! I was so tired from carrying Emily but she kept trying to run around in the garage (the grano was in) so I had to hold her. Phill was hot too. I told Emily we could have an ice-cream.
After signing off on the meeting we went to the nearby BP, must have sold out of most icecreams. It’s been so hot in Perth lately. Bought two icecream sandwiches.
Drop Phill of at the “kiss and ride” at Whitfords Train Station a bit after 9 Emily is upset Daddy is leaving. Puts her icecream on the car seat Informs me that her “inger” is dirty and wants it wiped. Calms down and eats her icecream after a while.
Arrive at Sherwin Rise, move the car under the garage, unpack and sit down. Mum, Lauren, John and Cait home. Lauren doing Uni, Cait doing school.
10am Emily had a dry nappy and did a big wee on the potty! Emily and I ate some fudge brownies leftover from Lauren’s lifegroup meeting on Sunday night
11:10 Put Emily down for a sleep, after Mum reminded me we needed to drop John off. Nursed Emily as she’d missed out on her morning feed in the rush.
Dropped John off at YouthCare for work experience. Went via Bishop Rd to the Galleria, saw big huntsman spider on my window. Freaked out a little. Phill had noticed it on Sunday, but forget to get rid of it, I was surprised it was still there.
~12pm Parked close to Myer, after fitting into a spot next to a concrete pier. Got Mum to check before I got out but spider now safely on the boot. went in and noticed 50% off marked down clothing, so mum looked for dresses for Cait’s ball and I went to the Clinique counter and got some Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel and my gift. Had a look at Forever New and saw some beautiful dresses Cait may like took photos on my phone, forgetting I had the camera in my bag!! I noticed that a couple of my older dresses are now in fashion again and Mum said how Cait is now reusing some of my old outfits. I bought some size 10 shorts from Temt and a little tatted/lace vest. Mum got milk from Coles then we went back to the car – checked for spider and didn’t find it. Drove home. Saw Commitment = Satisfaction on the water truck at the Reid Hwy/Alex Driver overpass construction site.
1pm Arrived home, ate salad roll on multigrain bun. Had a cup of tea and a muffin. Chatted to Cait, Mum and Lauren about various things. Did some reading of Isaiah.
3pm A storm came up – a little bit of rain. Emily woke, Mum, Cait and I got her up and changed her nappy. Mum read her books and we watched a video of Emily playing on my iPod while feeding her lunch and calling Phill to check arrangements for tea. After 2 nights out we decided to go home for tea.
3:15pm left Mum and Dad’s – Emily wasn’t impressed by the traffic on Hepburn Ave (it was really slow due to roadworks, and demanded I put on “This Little Light of Mine” rather than
3:45 Saw 3 trains waiting between the stations on the freeway. Listened to 4pm news of ABC Perth (720 AM), nothing on the trains. Damage to Ellenbrook and Midland from the storm. Emily was wanting her music on
4:20ish get home to Foss St. Say hi to Grandma & Grandad. Grandad, Grandma and Emily all sit on the bed and read from her favourite “Monk” 5 Little Monkeys Book
Read emails and RSS reader for a little while. Emails from Dale Alcock confirming the change to the tiles (no cost to us thankfully!) Took screenshots of arial pictures of our house under construction from Nearmap.com. Took some photos of the sky.
5:06 Phill rang and said he was walking up from the bus. I grabbed Emily’s shoes and headed over the road to meet Daddy. Phill asks if I can make hime some bread, so I put on a white loaf.
5:30 Dinner is t-bone steak, potato salad, fried pumpkin and onion with almonds and balsamic vinegar, coleslaw.5:20 Start Emily on leftover patties from Friday. She wants to go outside with Daddy. It’s hot but I let her go out. She does the watering and plays with Daddy. I sit on the hammock for a minute.
Dinner was BBQ sausages, t-bone steak, potato salad, fried pumpkin and onion with almonds and balsamic vinegar, coleslaw. Delicious.
6:45 As Grandad is taking over the dishes, Emily calls “Ray” for Grandad to clear up her plate too,. Grandma and Phill think this is hilarious and keep encouraging her.
7:10 Bath, Emily loves drawing with her bath crayons. Daddy teaches her to smile for the camera. Wants Mummy to do everything.
7:30 Emily in jammies for bed, “nap , suit, dummy, bunny”. I nurse her (“hair” she likes to hold onto my hair lately while I feed her) and then she settles to sleep herself. “Bank, teddy bank” wants her two blankets with her in bed AND a quilt. I decide to let her have them and work on getting rid of them later in the week.
We sat and relaxed with some ice-cream topped with Cherry ripe bits and watched the Valentine’s episode of Modern Family and finished watching an episode of NCIS:LA. Have my vitamins, magnesium, ginkgo.
9:15 Bread is ready, but a bit flat, I forgot the bread improver! Never mind.
9:30 Shower and bed.

What a day! I feel tired just reading it! I think looking back I would have like to capture more of the conversations of the day, and perhaps next time I’ll capture a more normal day. But then I’m sure it will be interesting to look back on this time living in the ‘apartment’ and waiting for our new home.
Melissa
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