Pondering Ponteuf

In the thick of it!

Wow,life is crazy right now.After a solid month of help from my mum(thanks mum xx) and my sis winging her way in to throw more help my way (thanks Cxx) I am pretty much on my own.Of course Papa helps when he is home.I am very lucky there I know but since everyone went back to school I feel as if my head is permanently spinning.I am hoping we will get into a good groove here and then I plan to recount our summer memories as fall begins to chase us.

A good way to keep the chill out don't you think?

This one just wont listen when I plead with her to slow down on the growing.It puts a lump in my throat to look at just how much she has grown in these eight weeks.

sigh.........

I am counting my blessings....

and I see four!!!!

Ten minutes old

Miss Annie Olivia was born at 3.45pm on July 20th 2009.Into the hands of a wonderful nurse who stopped her falling out onto the floor as the doctor raced to try and catch her himself.Well Annie had other ideas.You snooze,you lose Mr babycatcher.He really was a wonderful Doc.It wasn't his fault that once Annie decided that it was time for out we went from 2cm to a baby dangling over the floor in 30 minutes.He has just learnt that I wasn't exaggerating when I said my babes come fast.Not that I think that there will be anymore but at least now he knows!!!

Anyway stats are

7lbs 8oz of wonderful smooshy loveliness.

19 inches of deliciousness to nibble on

 and a head full of dark hair just like papa.Which is a good thing really seeing as after three mini me's he was starting to question his role in this whole fathering a child thing!!!

We feel truly blessed and our hearts are fit to burst.

Here she is freshly scrubbed up and slightly more awake.

Righty-o,I am off to enjoy my babymoon,

cheerio

x

I'll take a few more hours in the day please!!

With every child that comes into our lives comes tens times the blessings,ten times the memories and ten times the happiness.Along with that abundance of joy comes ten times the output of energy,love,nurturing and patience needed.

I feel very blessed right now.As the nesting instinct is kicking in,I am looking around at my family and feel such a bursting of pride and love in my chest.You just want to bottle up the feeling.You know,for when you are so overwhelmed by the mountain of tasks and chores,that you just want to be alone,somewhere.You could reach into your treasure closet and pull out the bottle,take a hefty swig and instantly you will be reminded what it is all for.A little tonic if you like,to get you through the tough times:0)

I could have done with that the other night when faced with the whole bathing three children,helping them with their jammies,reading stories and kisses for everyone,alone.I just couldn't seem to get in a groove.

Poor Ollie,just couldn't wait longer and fell asleep in his towel on the bedroom floor.As I walked into his room and saw him there,that bursting love broke through.I scooped him up and savoured his surrender to sleep.Another sweet memory to file away for later years,

sorry for the cluttered ramble,I am sure you get the idea:0)

Have a great day,

cheerio.

To forget and forgive.

It's been one of those weeks,not days,WEEKS!!

In the space of three hours I had the most painful root canal performed and one of the most stomach wrenching,guilt laden mothering moments ever.I arranged for Griff to stay at school for lunch seeing as the root canal would take a while but I don't know if it was just pregnancy brain or a mix of that and the novacaine but I forgot to pick him up.FORGOT!!!! I was home in plenty of time,tootling around doing 'stuff' when the principal called.I have never ran so fast,pregnant or not,to get him.Oh my goodness the guilt that ensued was more painful than the tooth and no amount of painkillers could take that pain away!I am sure that there are plenty of stories out there but I can't believe that I forgot to pick up my own child.

How could I forget this??

He is just fine.I don't think that he batted an eyelid but me,I think I have post traumatic stress!!

Now I just need to fogive myself!LOL

cheerio

Settling in.

This is a little song that we would sing in our Waldorf parent - child group.We would do it in rounds and it was really quite enchanting.

Coming,it is.What with up north getting fourteen inches of snow last night,I would say that Old man Winter is right around the corner,I could feel him nipping my nose on our stroll today and I hear him rattling the little crooks and crevices of my ninety year old windows.Stay away I tell you Old man winter,you are not wanted here.Yet alas we are gearing up for our bunkering down days.Spending more time with our crayons as our sidewalk chalk lays discarded in the garage

 and warming our bellies with comforting foods like apple and pear crisp made from our orchard outings.

made with a good stick of butter and lashings of maple syrup,brown sugar and cinnamon,this poor crisp didn't stand a chance.It was gone in thirty minutes flat! I did share a little with my loves,honest:0)

This afternoon the boys forwent their nap and snuggled on the couch for a viewing of the red balloon .

Oliver did his best to scare off the mean boys with his current choice of defense,raspberries blown at machine gun speed,but alas the ending was the same and Ollie dragged himself over to me for a quick snuggle before the pleas of "again Mama,again" started up again.

If you haven't seen it.YOU.MUST.RENT.IT.

We have been hanging out by the fire most afternoons this week too.

Now that is one thing that I do love about winter.A loaded,cracking fire.

Don't you just love the spot that Griff chose to watch the dance of the fire fairies?

Tomorrow is Halloween.I am prepping myself for the sugar hyped four hour bell ringing marathon that is going to happen (I don't love this bit,I like my evening peace,I do.!) but I can't wait to see the babes dressed up,we have a super Griffin,Ollie dog and Bella the Belle to take trick or treating tomorrow.Now that I can't wait for:0)

I'll be back with piccies on Monday,

Stay safe and warm tomorrow

~~~~~~~HAPPY HALLOWEEN~~~~~~~~~

Fallen leaves and flip flops.

Yesterday was beautiful.The wind every so slowly shook a leaf or two to the ground but the sun was warm enough to keep the shivers away.Just.

I jumped at the opportunity to drag out the bouncy castle so that the babes could burn off some of that frenetic energy that seems to appear within them at 4.30 on the dot EVERY.BLOODY.DAY!!

And as the chicken soup simmered in the kitchen (gotta love that easy dinner!) I took the chance to get some reading in.

I'll be honest here.The sundance catalog got the majority of my spare time.As always,I love everything in there.With a wistful sigh I dropped it into the recycling bin on the way in.

There were some great recipes for root veggies that I am going to try after my visit to the farmer's market on Sunday.I am sure that the velvet sweet potato custard will go down like a lead balloon but it sure sounds good to me:0)

The sun is sticking around today so outdoor play will resume once school is out.

Cheerio

The end is near.....

Don't worry yourselves,I am not being all despondent about the current state of our economy and such.(I save that for off line!!)

I am talking about my favorite sunday morning routine of meandering around the local farmer's market,bringing home a great haul

 and cooking my brood a tasty lunch.

My bunch are a picky lot though.I have to prepare my dishes behind closed doors.My dear Italian husband despises the texture of tomatoes and had he seen the work in progress of the soup,he would have promptly gagged and ran!Actually,picky is an understatement about my husband's culinary likes.It's a bloody good job that he isn't a pain in my derriere in many other areas!LOL

The soup was from here YUM which I found thanks to Honeyflake's blog.I replaced the cloves with a dash of nutmeg as I prefer nutmeg myself.Broccoli,cheese and bread were from the farmer's market.

Ollie is the only one who seems to have inherited my love of different foods (not that grilled cheese and tomato soup is different but anyway.....)

After plenty of extra pulsing we had our basil just right

He helped my grind and blend eight bunches of basil into enough pesto to last us until it begins to sprout next year.It has been cubed and bagged and is sitting in the freezer just waiting to be devoured.

Throw in LOTS of yummy cheese

A dash of lemon and you are good to go:0)

Next week is the last farmer's market until next June.My little arms are going to be over flowing with as much produce as I can get my hands on to freeze so that we can get little bursts of summer throughout the chilly months.

Be sure to support your local farms and businesses.By doing so,we help them and help ourselves by knowing exactly what is going into our foods and where it came from.These days,what with tainted milk in China and all of the other food scares that are constantly cropping up on our news pages,it is the least we can do to protect ourselves and those we love.

p.s I apologize for the lots of bolded text.I am still getting use to this new typepad and I can't figure out how to turn it off!!!LOL

Cor blimey..

What a scorcher!!
With the temperature being close to a hundred the past couple of days,we have been staying close to home and trying to stay cool.
Cheeky little minx sprayed all of us!!

We ate lots of this

That went fast!

Today will be another day of water and watermelon!!

Happy campers....

I LOVE the idea of loading up the car,pitching the tent,snuggling up together and falling asleep under the stars.In the morning everyone stumbling out of said tent all bleary eyed to the scent of sausages and coffee made over a fire pit that is sticky around the sides from last nights smore activities!!
THE REALITY is just that.I love the idea of it.I DON'T however love the thought of squabbling kids,peeing over a bush in the night wondering if a bear is going to chomp down on my behind,my kids DETEST sausages and I like the coffee timer to go off so that my coffee is hot and waiting for me when I stumble out of my comfy bed that is not on the ground in a 5 x8 space where I may wake up to a toad on my pillow!! Which why we stayed in a lodge here

The kids had a blast

As did Papa....

It was all very relaxing..

Which is what we were hoping for so everything worked out well:0)
Have a great weekend.

Sew busy...

With things getting busier in the shop (yay) and preparing for our weekend trip,I barely have time to keep myself presentable.But then what's new!!LOL
I won't be back until monday morning so I just wanted to wish you all a great weekend.
Have fun.
NANOOO-NANOO