A little bit of vintage sweetness

Everytime I go to Oakbank or Balhannah I pass a sweet looking, vintage treasures kind of shop.  Everytime I think, one day I will stop there.  After my super-productive sewing, quilting day on Saturday (where for the first time EVER I finished everything I took to do LOL) I was driving home and the shop was still open..and I was childless..and I wasn't quite expected home yet, so I got to have my browse, and just as I had expected it was a wonderful treasure trove of all things lovely and vintage.  So this little cut glass jug just had to come home with me.  It is my new favourite find.

Happiest of Mondays to you!

xxx

Doing the shopping...

I recently tried something new.  I am in the habit of doing a HUGE grocery shop once a month.  We get our fruit and veg home delivered each week by a gorgeous local family "Just the Freshest" and then I do a bread and milk run a few times a week.  The grocery shopping is, quite frankly, a pain and I look forward to it about as much as having a tooth pulled.  I'm sure the kids look forward to it even more than that LOL!

Anyway, to cut my ramblings short, this month for the first time ever we did our grocery shopping on line.  It was delivered the next day for the exorbitant sum of $5.00.  The kids ENJOYED the delight of a big truck pulling into our driveway and unloading mystery bags of groceries.  They were so excited that they even helped me put it all away and then with the time we saved shopping we went outside and played!  You've gotta love that!

I am now a true convert!
Have a great week,
Keep smiling,
Nell

Let's Talk About Crumbs!

Okay, so at the risk of sounding negative, I want to stop and talk about crumbs for a minute.  Have you noticed that blogland is full of beautiful projects, amazing mothers, and gorgeous, polished, peaceful homes?  I am a particular fan of the Steiner/Waldorf blogs but at times they overwhelm me.  You see, much as I might try, my home rarely looks like that (even on a good day AFTER I've cleaned!)  Our home is normally a chaotic mess, and we are generally running late for being somewhere, and most often one or the other of the small ones has misplaced a shoe?  Today is HARMONY DAY - things were quite harmonious in our household and we even looked like being early to school when Hannah announced (sotto voce as she exited the front door) that she needed to wear something orange or a chinese hat (we have SOOOOO many of those lying around LOL!)  And so then of course by the time we had raided the dress up box and tried to find her orange t-shirt in the infinite abyss that is her room things were less than harmonious :(

I love that we use blogs to celebrate our achievements ("Look I made this" or "The kids did that") but maybe sometimes we need to expose our lily white underbellies and let others know that the wheels sometimes fall off.  thehandmaden.blogspot.com was having a bad day yesterday and it was actually really nice to be able to sympathise and relate! Thank you Kellie for keeping it real!

Despite my grumbles I am quite prepared to live with the perpetual crumbs and chaos just for the precious SAHM moments like yesterday when Dan proudly brought in two feathers from the chookpen and stuck them in a glass of water "so that we can watch them grow".  At the moment that dear boy just cracks me up. He is teaching himself to read from Hannah's readers and the words he makes up or misappropriates are just too funny.  He said to me "Mummy, what noise does a lamington make?" I was puzzled until I realised he was looking at a picture of a flamingo!

While we are talking SAHM/domestic stuff.  Does anyone have ideas for integrating Waldorf type toys into a not strictly Steiner/Waldorf setting?  I LOVE our Waldorf toys - the feel of them, the look of them, knowing that they have been handmade and not mass produced but I have to say that Hannah enjoys her pink plastic little people castle much more than the beautiful wooden dolls house.  I frequently find our little root babies taking trips in the Tonka trucks or cohabitating with barbie and I just don't feel quite right about it!  Thinking of maybe rearranging so that all of the Waldorf stuff is in one spot - but I know that the kids will still end up moving things around to suit themselves?  In a perfect world I would love a proper Waldorf Playroom (and a lot less plastic toys) but that might have to wait.

BIG excitement in our house yesterday as the Schoolgirl progressed from Level One (golden words) to Level Two (red words)  We have begun our own little special way of celebrating small things - baby icecream cones at the Lobethal Bakery.  A lovely and affordable way of saying "YAY!" on a semi regular basis!

Hope you are having a wonderful week.  We are off to Granny and Grandpa' new beach house to celebrate Easter.

Keep smiling,

Nell