Bookworm...

It's wheat planting time here - and that means looooong hours for the husbo and flying solo until it's all finished. 

This is what our nights look like at the moment while I try to feed, bath and dress two kids for bed....then keep them occupied until that glorious 7pm.  Macie is obsessed with books and insists that she reads them to us - and she actually does a really great job!  Even Will loves it!

So there are lots of trips to visit Daddy on the tractor and lots of tears from Macie when we have to leave but it's not forever - and there is nothing more I love than a wheat crop - watching it grown and turn golden! 

Speaking of books - I recently made a massive order of books for the kids through The Book Depository in the UK.  I have to share this website with you - it's cheap and the postage is free.  Too good to be true hey! 

While purchasing these books, I treated myself with two books written by two of my favourite blogs ever....



Stephanie from Nie Nie Dialogues
I purchased it from here

and...

Kelle from Enjoying the Small Things
I purchased it from here

 If you love a good read  - then take yourselves off to these blogs and prepare to be sucked in.  I literally read these blogs daily.  They make me laugh and cry - and they inspire me.

So, now I am itching at the bit for our book order to arrive so I can snuggle under the covers with a hot coffee and escape to another person's world - a world that is so inspirational and beautiful.

And I am hoping that my children learn to love books as much as I do - because there is nothing more satisfying than being engrossed in a book, finishing it and than having a bookcase full of your favourite reads. 

What's your favourite book?

Lately...

I was going through my iPhone this morning and it's always a good reminder of what we have been upto for the past few weeks....through the blurriness of iPhone quality photos!!

Macie's love for William has escalated to a new high.  William couldn't possibly have a big sister who is more loving and attentive.  She will make such a beautiful mummy when she is older.

I packed the kids in the car and did a flying visit to Toowoomba for ANZAC Day.  It was mayhem with all the grandkids together!

My sister managed to save these beauties from my cousin's garage!  The rocking horse was my sister's when she was a baby and the trike was actually my mums.  Photography Props Galore!!  I am planning a lick of paint and a bit of TLC on both!

Last week I declared (after many many tears of my own) that I was no longer going to fight with Macie for hours on end for her to have a daysleep.  Instead we hired 7 DVDs for $7 and each day all she needs to do is lie on her couch and watch her special movie.  Each day has resulted into this.....Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!!  But don't tell Moo that!!

14 days after getting the nasty Gastro bug, this little guy is smiling again.  It knocked his poor little body around and made him so sad and unsettled.  But we are on the other side and enjoying all the smiles and coos coming from this delightful little boy!  Can you believe he is 9 weeks old already?

Macie's Potty Chart has gone from this.....

to this.  Something just clicked for our Big Sis.  We are so totally over the moon about this!

Macie now goes to Daycare every Friday.  She loves it so much that I literally have to drag her out kicking and screaming in the afternoons.  I now spend the day in town....enjoying a quiet coffee....

...and a day fully devoted to my little man. 

Now the weather is much more pleasant, we are now going for walks around the farm with our 'babies'.  Macie seriously loves this.

This is my attempt at my sister's AMAZEBALLS chocolate slice....FAIL!

Summer Storms....

It appears that this tiny little corner of Australia where we reside now experiences a "Wet Season"....complete with summer storms, grumbling thunder and flooding rains.

Unfortunately the flooding rains has hit the farm this past weekend and my in-laws are currently undertaking the mammoth task of cleaning the aftermath of the inches of flood water through their house.  Lucky for us, the trusty Dalli Cottage managed to escape the water and is on 'high' ground - I wish I could say the same for Ma & Pa though. 

Summer can be a real bitch....but check out the majestic sunset that makes me remember her beauty!

Family Time

After 10 days of a long yet fantastic harvest, Macie and I have thoroughly enjoyed having Daddy home for the weekend.  Lazy mornings, swims in the pool, BBQ lunches and just soaking up the three of us before life on the farm gets busy again.

I am a big 'Family Time' person - and I suppose you could call me selfish with it.  I love them all to myself after we have been busy with general life commitments.  I love the way we all stay in our PJs until someone knocks at the door and then it's a mad scramble to get dressed so we can look decent!!  I love that Macie is just content when it's both of us at home - it's her happy place.  I love watching the Daddy-Daughter relationship blossom again - and runs to him when I say 'No'...which is quite regularly in this house.

Family Time is sacred - especially in this darn age where life is constantly in the fast lane. It's important and it's where the memories are made.  It doesn't have to include a big fancy holiday or an expensive pool.  It is what you make of it - whether it be Macie playing "Scare You" with her Pa, or looking for birdies with her Poppy - as long as we are laughing and smiling....and together, then that is all that matters. 

I will always cherish it and savour it.  For it will be within a blink of my eye that my children will be adults....and I will be begging for the innocent swims in the backyard blowup pool on a lazy Sunday afternoon! 

A big thanks for Pa & Ma McNulty for taking these magical photos of Macie over the weekend.  Photography runs in the family on this farm!! :)

Weekend One of Silly Season

Sorghum Plant 2011 begun this week - meaning that the husbo starts to spend more time with the Tractor and the days are just a tad bit lonely here in the Dalli Cottage.  My friends and I joke about "Farmers Widow" season where we meet for coffees more often and linger at the park for a while longer. 

Needless to say, when it's Silly Season on the farm - I always seem to get my creative on which has been hiding in my belly with this baby ever since I fell pregnant.  Thankfully, now I have met the 17 week mark, I appear to be able to manage the day without the need for a 2 hour snooze with Macie - so this weekend has been fun to get my paint clothes on and set the mind ticking with ideas.

Ever since we have joined the kid's rooms together (joys of living in a small cottage) - I have been wanting to make the kid's 'spaces' individual and special to the child.  Obviously, I am waiting on confirmation from our 20 week scan for the baby however I wanted to make Macie's space both special and magical since she is so happily sharing with her new sibling. 

We managed to score a very cheap chest of drawers at a Garage Sale a while back that just needed a dose of TLC and a few licks of paint.....and since I was playing the "Farmers Widow" role - I decided that this weekend was the time to do it. 

With my trusty apprentice who has a fascination of paintbrushes and screwdrivers - we set off to sand, paint, and then 'decorate' this otherwise bland chest. 

Thanks to my newfound addiction to Pinterest - I researched many 'chests', 'drawers' and then came across some fantastic 'Mod-Podge' creations....and the seed was planted.  I tried to explain my vision to Heath...."Butterflies in a swarm, mod-podged on with a lacquer over the top"......after some very in-depth conversation of me trying to explain what mod-podge was and Heath not getting the gist AT ALL....he left it in my hands.  Aint he kind?

I am happy to report that as of this afternoon....this is the work-in-progress Flutter Flutter Chest of Drawers.  The butterflies are only stuck on for the meantime while I get my hands on some modpodge and some funky drawer handles....

It's a work-in-progress that has successfully kept us entertained all weekend.....

Now what to do for the rest of the Silly Season.....

Down on the farm....

I write this through a dusty haze.....the long-awaited sorghum crop in front of the cottage is finally being harvested.  Imagine a volcano in your backyard and add an "Ash Shower"....and that is what I call harvest folks.  No complaints here though....a crop is a crop....and just me saying that is such a transformation from three years ago - when I first moved to the cottage.

Being a 'city-girl' I had such illusions about how life would be on the farm.  I was blind to the serious operations of a farm and would comment on how I liked the wheat crop better as it was 'pretty' and the sorghum was too big and bulky....yep - I was green to the country life....I had NO clue.  I wore gumboots even inside in fear that I may just be bitten by a snake and if you mentioned the words auger, row-grow, max-i-merge or field bin....I would have just stared at you with a blank. 

Little did I know the time, science, precision and just hard work that went into just one paddock of crop.  The relentless weeds in Summer time and the constant battle against bugs, mice, birds and trespassers.  The heavy-duty machinery and complex additions that were required to spray the weeds or the ratios of chemicals that would send any mathlete into a frenzy.  That they would sit on a tractor for 18 plus hours a day to get a crop in before the rain....hanging on the hope that the weather man was right this time.  I totally underestimated it. 

In the 3 or so years since I have moved to the farm - I have slowly learnt the logistics, the operations and the demands of working a farm.  I respect the physical labour but also the mental hardships as they place their lives in the hands of Mother Nature.  I look at Heath's parents in a different light - and see hard-work, loyalty and blood, sweat and tears.  I respect them for surviving the hardships - the droughts and the flooding rains. 

I also understimated how much happiness this farm would bring me.  The majestic sunsets that I "oooh" and "aahh" over each night (much to Heath's amusement), the endless room, the wildlife (except for rodents and reptiles) and just the life....it must be the water, the air and the atmosphere.   

Who would have thought that the lifestyle would transform me....but I am proud to say I live in the country....and I hope I do for many more years to come.