My most favourite time of the year

Outside of our back window, is my favourite garden bed.



I love it in Spring when the trees blossom and the bulbs start coming through.



It has been sadly a bit neglected this year but surprisingly enough it has still come through looking beautiful.



I love to sit in my lounge and look out at it. I love when I walk through the front door from being out that it looks so beautiful when I walk down the hallway.




I wish our whole garden could look this nice!


This garden makes me happy - I love spring!

Trying to stay above water

Well, it is back. The familiar signs of that empty hoplessness have raised their ugly head again. I am pretty sure that I am suffering from PND. After suffering depression before the signs are fairly easy to pick, and I have noticed them getting gradually worse over the last few weeks. So I am off to the GP tomorrow to talk about going back on meds, not ideal but I don't want it to get any worse.

Hopefully this will help me get back on track, back onto craft and back into my blog! Stick around, this little black duck will be swimming away again in no time!

Just too cute!!! Awwww.......

Just couldn't resist! How cute is our little man in his superman suit?? Just absolutely too adorable (okay I might be biased!)

I know that I haven't been keeping up my promise but it has been hectic here. And I have been spending wayy too much time reading other peoples fantastic blogs and feeling jealous whilst ignoring mine!

Honestly I have been blown away by some of the wonderful blogs which I read and the talented women in this world. So many wonderful mums out there working from home and creating amazing things to make this world a lovelier place to be in!

One day, maybe I can find my thing and use it to contribute towards the household. As much as I love my felt things, they just don't make any money and even though I do it for the love of it, it would be awesome to be able to find my own thing that I could earn a living from! Just need to find 'IT'!

For now, the nightly routines need to start, folding washing, hanging washing, loading the dishwasher and getting school stuff ready for the morning!

Night xxx

LIfe can be a puzzle!

A few weeks ago I was listening to the radio when I was out and about doing things and there was an interview with Susan Maushart who wrote a book called 'The Winter of our Disconnect'. Basically for 6 months her family took a hiatus from everything digital and electronic, the phone, internet, tv, handheld games, you name it, they got rid of it! It was amazing to hear her talk about how even her teenage children learnt the beauty of having less technology around and had me craving for the same thing. I am so sick of constantly telling the kids to step away from the tv, get off the internet, turn of their DS's and basically learn to 'play' again!. Well the arrival of Grandma Joy has definately helped my cause. Not only are they loving playing with their Grandma (or showing off to her!) but she arrived bearing gifts. Pick up Sticks, Marbles, Cards and Puzzles have been such a hit in the house. All of the kids have been playing games which don't involve electricity and it has been fantastic. I think they are even enjoying it too! Unfortunately the internet is still getting a bit too much of a work out but in general they are doing some other activities too. This puzzle is our second to be undertaken since Joy's arrival and it still remains incomplete, but it is getting there slowly.

Sometimes the most simple things can be the most fun and I am glad that the kids have gotten to see that you can play fun games that aren't electronic! I don't think I could ever give it all up completely but less time wasted on these types of things would be wonderful - well a girl can dream can't she?

Reconnecting!

I realised today that it was time to start reconnecting to a few things in my life. My blog being one of them. I have spent alot of time lately whilst feeding my darling boy Finn reading other peoples blogs and marvelling at how committed and dedicated they are to updating them, something that I have lacked lately. So, I am making a new promise to myself that I will be blogging at least twice a week, hey it will be a great way to reflect on what I am doing and what I have done. God knows I need to slow down and start paying attention to what is going on in my life, each day is just flying by and weeks are becoming blurs. My gorgeous little boy is already 3 months old and I cannot even begin to fathom where that time is gone! So I am committing to doing this more often.



It has also been time to reconnect with family. My lovely Mother In Law is staying with us and reconnecting with the kids again. Sadly she lost her husband to cancer in April, so for her it has been a hard time, but I hope that spending some time with the children and meeting her latest grandchild has helped a bit. It has been lovely catching up with her again and the kids are revelling in her attention! (the cry of "Grandma Joy, come and see this" rings out every few minutes at the moment!). Because she is here we have had the opportunity to catch up with other loved ones in our lives that we don't see very often and it has been lovely to see their latest additions and how their older children have grown.

I also had the chance to reconnect with my sister in law today when she rang me from Darwin. My Brother and Sister in Law moved up there last week with their two little girls to start his first posting with the ADF! Feels so strange to have my long time confidant and friend away, thank god for technology as I know she is only a phone call away, but it still isn't the same. However for them this is a chance to reconnect as a family as my brother has been away at training for 9 months and now they are finally back together as a family. I hope that they are relishing every minute together!

Lately I realised I had underestimated again the impact that a new baby has on the family. Finn is a pretty good little man but still a 3 month old baby that loves his mumma. So craft just isn't really happening much here lately and I swear this little man has a craft radar so as soon as I pull something out to start on he wakes up or gets fussy and wants his mum to hold him!!! I am finding it a bit stressful to complete felt food right now so after I complete my current orders I have decided to take a step back and just do some things for myself. I have so much that I want to get done for the kids and am just not finding the time. I also have so many things that are half finished and want to complete them all so that I can safely begin something new! It is time for me to reconnect to my craft again and for doing it for the love of it rather than by request! Probably not great for establishing my business but I just cannot juggle everything at once!

It is also time for me to reconnect to budgeting and home care again. I need to get my life back in order, I think being so tired during my pregnancy gave me an excuse to not worry about all of this and now that I have had the baby I really need to get things back in order. This goes for my running as well, however with Darrian being soo busy it is making life hard and it isn't quite so fun to run on the treadmill as when you go out around the neighbourhood with the ipod plugged in and immerse yourself in tunes! If only I didn't remember how much work it was to train and get to a point where running was just fun rather than hard work! I am sure I will get there eventually!

And now it is time for me to reconnect to my bed. Way too late for me to be up and tomorrow we are out with the kids - as much as school holidays are doing my head in, I know I will miss them when they go back.

I promise I will be back sooner rather than later!

Our latest arrival - Finn is here!

Okay, so I know I haven't blogged in about 7 weeks, but life has been a bit hectic here. Our darling baby Finn arrived 2 days late on Easter Monday. I had a wonderful homebirth with all the kids here along with my Mum and Dad and the beautiful midwives Jo and Katie, as well as my darling student, Maria. It was everything I wanted and more and even though 2nd stage took a bit longer than I would have liked as my waters wouldn't break, Finn arrived in just under 4 hours, surrounded by my gorgeous family and is just utterly divine.

Needless to say, I haven't been doing much for the past six weeks but just keeping things going, but am trying to get some craft projects underway.

For now though, there is alot of baby gazing and alot of covering my eyes from the mess that is my house!

We love you baby Finn, happy 6 weeks!

Baby Brain, Cankles, Squished Fly Slice and 4 days to go!

Well baby brain is officially here! I wrote on my calendar that I had a chiropractors appointment today, turned up, went in and saw him but when I came out to make another appointment I realised I was actually a month early! I felt like such an idiot! The receptionist was so lovely when I rang after to apologise and she said she didn't have the heart to tell me that I didn't actually have an appointment!

Getting bigger every day and am so sick of people's shocked expression when I tell them that I still have over 5 weeks to go. I know that I am big (well 35 weeks pregnant big!!) but I am truly over feeling like an anomoly! And cannot wait until I get my ankles back - truly makes me appreciate how slim they actually are when I am not pregnant!

Got the energy to bake a bit this week too and made a yummy squished fly slice (read sultana slice) and some banana cupcakes - not good for the weight gain though, but very yummy nonetheless!

And today I heard from Darrian! Back from 11 days out in the field and only 4 days until he gets home now - YIPEEE! Am missing him more than I could ever imagine and he sounds like he loves it so much that I desperately hope he is happy to come home and get back into every day life.

Well he had better be! He needs to be here for the arrival of his next little man to add to the Williams brood - hopefully around 38 weeks - that would be lovely (are you listening baby!!!)

Cankles, knitting beanies and 10 more days and counting until he is home!

Well we are only 10 days out now until my darling husband comes home. It sure has been a real full on experience to say the least!! I honestly believed that I was stronger than I am and have found it much harder than I ever expected! I think the stress has finally caught up with me physically and for only the second time in my pregnancy my blood pressure has been high (the first after a fight with my friend that still hasn't been mended!) and between that and my very large, fluid filled cankles I ended up being tested for pre-eclampsia. Thankfully it was all clear, but I know now I need to try to get my emotions under control (yeah, really easy for a 33 week pregnant lady who is missing her husband like crazy and contending with 4 kids that miss Daddy!!!) to try to look after myself physically. I also need to get over my hate of having a messy house, although I think living in the mess makes me as stressed as the cleaning up makes me tired!!

So, anyway, we are down to 10 days today until Darrian comes home and I cannot wait. I haven't spoken to him for 5 days as he is out bush and it will be at least another 5 until he will even have an opportunity to speak to me - and then he comes home 4 days later!!!

Trying to keep busy, have sewn together a couple of flannelette blankets for baby and finished off my little beanie (my first knitting attempt in years!!). Hope this baby's head isn't too huge otherwise it might be a bit small. My next one will be made just slightly bigger!

I had some stress this week (yes more I know!) trying to work out what to do about a birthing pool as the only time I have tried to use one was with Jack when I was in labour and it amped up my contractions so quickly that I had to jump straight back out. I therefore have been a bit hesitant to purchase one and a lovely friend has offered this week for me to borrow hers! I am so thankful to her as at least I will have it on hand to use if I want to!

So many things to do and only another 6 weeks or so to do them in! Need to start making lists and checking things off - this baby will be arriving before I know it!

Off to do a small amount of tidying and then might hit the couch! A weekend of sitting in front of the airconditioner and watching the V8's!!! Yay!!

Alphabet Blocks and growing bellies! Oh and being a single mum for 31 days!!

Since I had the sewing machine that actually works now, I decided to finish off these blocks that I had cut out. They were quite time consuming but hopefully the baby will like them when he is old enough to start playing with them. The other kids have given them a pretty good run so far!! I actually had to put them away as they were getting played with (and grubby) from the other 4! At least it is another project off of my half done list!

And my belly just seems to be expanding daily! Worried about how big this baby is going to be, or maybe just how big I am going to be!! The above photo was taken at 30wks and 4 days so stil ages to go before this baby arrives! A bit frightening really how massive I just may get!

Well as the title suggests, I am now a single mum to 4.75 children for the next 31 days whilst my gorgeous husband is at Kapooka doing his 4 weeks basic training for the army reserves! At the moment it still feels like he is on a business trip and I think that the kids feel this way too as they haven't said much about him not being here. I am sure in about a weeks time we will all start noticing it though! At least once this 4 week stint is over it is much smaller blocks from here on in! and I know he will love it and will be having fun - just miss him already! Counting down the days eagerly and I am sure now that school is back the days will fly by!

Am madly trying to finish the bassinet blanket I am knitting and I think I have given up on the crochet boots - just don't seem to be working right. I might try knitting a block blanket for the baby out of the bamboo cotton blend yarn! It is too lovely to have it go to waste. Might also start trawling etsy for some more patterns of things to make from it! So many projects - so little time!

Products of a new Sewing Machine!

Well, I got my new sewing machine! Okay it is just a basic Brother machine, however after using the awesome handme down machines that my Nanna and Grandma gave me and both of them finally giving up the ghost after all these years, we decided that it would probably be cheaper to just get a new one. Target had these on sale for 1/2 price so even if I only get a couple of years out of it it will be worth it. So started by making Riley a pair of shorts which I made from a Burda (#9641) pattern. It came in size 6-12 so after finishing Riley's (which he proudly wore all day!!) I then decided to adapt it a bit for Jack. Basically I only had to make them a bit shorter and use the size 6 width etc - he sure is stocky!! I then made this gorgeous skirt for Charlotte from Oliver & S Lazy Days Skirt Pattern which is available free online (just google it to get the site!). It was super easy and super quick so I whipped up another one for Caitlan (my neice) whilst she was here! I have a couple of other things in mind I want to try and want to try to find a nice pattern for something for Georgia! It is so nice to have a reliable machine again, really should make some more felt food to put on ebay, but have now started knitting a blanket for the baby. Just winging it at the moment so we will have to see how it turns out! Also have one bootie crocheted and need to finish the other one to make the pair!! So much I want to do but everyday life keeps getting in my way!!

Back to my knitting!

The ever growing belly of #5!

Can't believe how big I am getting now. In the 3rd trimester (this photo is me at 28wks & 3 days) and apart from the yucky heat we had over the weekend and a few aches I am feeling not too bad. Baby is very, very active over the last few days which is nice, love feeling him move around. Feeling very big though and cannot imagine how huge I am going to be by the end of this pregnancy! Started having a bit of a panic about birthing this baby and although I am so excited about having a homebirth, there are moments that I question myself on wether I can actually do it! I 'know' that I can as I have done it before, just that whole reality that this baby has to come out at some point is starting to freak me out a bit! Hoping that being able to birth at home will make it much more relaxed and hope it happens overnight so that the kids stay asleep and I don't have to worry about them! Will wait and see I guess, baby will come when he is good and ready.

New year and the thought of "maybe I should be blogging more?"

Well, as usual, I have been very slack when it comes to blogging. One of my first thoughts of new years resolutions was to get on here and update more often, but guess what....already I am falling behind. Half way through January almost and I am already falling behind!

So all I can do is try a bit harder and maybe use a photo journal of one achievement each day to record on here (even if I only do it once or twice a week!). So my first photo for this year is my 'market day' bag of felt foods that I listed today on ebay. Fingers crossed interest starts picking up again after the christmas/new year frenzy has died down a bit!!

Really hot here today in Adelaide, got to 42.8 in the city and I think up to 45 at Elizabeth so no doubt we were somewhere in between. All been sleeping out in the loungeroom the last couple of nights and are bunking down in front of the airconditioner again. Roll on tomorrow night when it is going down to 16 degrees and we may be able to cool down the house! Being 28 weeks pregnant in this heat is not too much fun! But at least bubba is nice and protected and safe in there - just poor Mummy that suffers!