monday is soup day

On Mondays, since I am home with a tribe of gorgeous children all day, I usually make a big pot of chicken and vege soup. I make a stock using a couple of chicken pieces with salt, pepper and onion. After simmering the chicken pieces until the meat is almost falling off the bone, I take them out and cut the meat off the bones, discarding the bones and skin. I return the chicken to the pot and gradually add a variety of different vegetables, allowing appropriate cooking time for each. Of course any vegetables are great, but I think that pumpkin, capsicum and spinach are absolute musts – they just add such a lovely flavour and sweetness to the soup. At the end, once everything is cooked I add a big bunch of chopped fresh parsley and some noodles – the children absolutely love the noodles! I usually have at least one or two children pottering around with me helping to put the chopped vegetables into the soup pot. After our diligent morning of chopping and simmering we all sit down together to a delicious, steaming bowl of chicken, vege and noodle soup. It is so satisfying to watch all the children enjoying the soup and feeling that they helped to produce it!

a sunny afternoon

After a rather miserable, rainy morning, lunch time brought with it a beautiful change in the weather - a godsend for three little boys who needed to get outside and run off some energy! As the sun came out, this was the view from our front verandah today - just breathtaking.

Looking at this drew all three little boys outside to enjoy the lovely afternoon while I kept an eye on them from the verandah.

The eldest climbed trees...

Middle son did some trampolining...

And littlest found endless fun with sticks and stones. Aaah, such simple pleasures!

sewing morning

Sewing morning - Yippee!! Reminiscent of the movie "How to make an American Quilt"...Each Thursday I meet with a group of friends, who also love sewing, and we have a loooovely time admiring each others' projects of the moment, giving advice (where asked for), chatting about life, drinking tea, eating a delicious sweet morsel and, of course, doing (a little bit of) sewing!  We all look forward to this morning so much, not only to chat, but because we know it will make us do at least some sewing each week.

My project of the moment is two (sort of matching) patchwork quilt covers for my two eldest boys to go on their bunk beds. I have had the fabric (pictured above) sitting in the cupboard for at least two years, so it feels good to finally be doing something with it. I still like the colours but feel I need to add some more interesting patterns into the mix now - so I'm searching for the right fabrics...I have spent at least three sewing sessions just cutting out the squares. I think that once I get through this stage and move onto the sewing part, the quilts will come together quite quickly. But anyhow, there's no rush, because sewing mornings are so much fun! It's a beautiful gathering of like-minded women, talking about life and achieving something as they let their creative juices flow. Can't wait for next week...

simple needs

As I have gradually become a more experienced mother I have come to realise how unnecessary it is, in fact, how important it is to refrain from, trying to keep our children constantly entertained and stimulated. I really believe strongly that children need time to become bored and then find something to amuse themselves with. Each Monday I look after my friend’s little girl who is 3 years old, as well as my own two youngest boys – Ben (5 years old) and Teddy (18 months old). My friend pays me to do this while she is out at work. Until recently, I would never have imagined that I could possibly enjoy doing what is basically a family daycare situation. However, in my new, simple life, I have been consciously taking the time to let my children and our visitors find what they want to play themselves. Of course there are lots of toys and activities around the house, but I don’t direct the children to anything in particular. As a result, they always seem to come up with the most wonderful games, using very few props, which are mostly inside their heads. They also love to engage in everyday activities such as cleaning! Three year old Melody is very fond of cleaning – whenever she sees me wiping down benches or tables she asks to help! This week I gave her a bottle of window cleaner and a cloth and she started cleaning the windows around my house that she could reach, which were of course covered in dirty finger marks from children touching them as they peer out the windows. Ben and Teddy then decided to join in! Ben did the spraying and Melody polished with the cloth while Teddy watched. I watched from a distance and could hear Ben congratulating Melody on her work with comments like “Good job, MelMel – well done!” I was so proud of my boy and so pleased to see all of them so happy with such a simple task. And, as you can see, we are now able to better enjoy the amazing view from our loungeroom windows.