This year's gardening adventure! 2014

As the gardening season starts in March I figured it was about time to start writing about this year's gardening adventures..
Hopefully we will have more success this year as last year was an epic fail! LOL
We had Charlie (and sometimes Leila) dig it up several times, heavy downpours flood it out, AJ run it over with the mower and the sun burn it to a crisp!!
Hopefully I have learnt from it at least slightly and can now better plan out the spaces catering to our 'paintbox' yards conditions ")

We have several gardening projects/spaces in our garden that we are concentrating on this year!
- the vege/fruit patch
- the fairy garden and
- the dinosaur rainforest 

I am hoping to create a photo diary of the progress each one makes in their own blog post for future reference for the kids :)

Rainy Day Car Play!

I was just flicking through posts in the morning and I found this great idea for the ultimate rainy day activity that I just knew we had to do at some point... It just happened to be a rainy day here so I thought 'why not now?'
However I altered it slightly as we have an outdoor craft area and I thought that it would be cool to have it as a permanent feature and play space..
All we used were:
☆ Oil pastels
☆ Crayons
☆ Our Imaginations
This was how we did it..
I cleaned the ground.. it could have done with a wash after all our playdoh and slime activities but hey, I only swept as I wasn't going to put that much work in, HA it was Sunday after all and we were being slightly spontaneous so the kids went going to hold out that long before becoming restless and cheeky :P
(I figured I would just add it to my list of things to organise/finalise without the kids around)
I started our drawing the road and told the kids to go and get the cars. They were very intrigued that I was drawing on the ground and ran off to get them.
When they came back there was an outline of a road I told them what I was doing and immediately they wanted to join in creating the city..
Naite wanted an army base so he set off planning where that was going to be and created that.. I helped Leila to draw a park, city and houses while Amelia well.. chewed on cars :P
The kids then spent sometime driving the cars around and racing before it lead to needing a few more things for their game we ended up with:
A carport, an airport, a runway, a army base, police station, communication satellite, machanic, city, homes, park, ambulance station, hospital and shops..
Naite even worked on his writing labeling the police station, hospital and fire station! And he did a great job his writing is getting much clearer :D
They spent hours playing, creating and role playing oh and chewing cars! Even Charlie joined in Amelia and Charlie were giants destroying the city! LOL
And now, seeing as we used crayons and oil pastels to draw, when I wash the ground it will not only stand out more but I imagine that it will be added to and continued to be played with long after the rain has disappeared :)
Thanks again to 'how wee learn' for the fantastic inspiration!

4am Insane Ideas

I'll say one positive thing to come from the kids waking me up and keeping me up at 4 in the morning! (Oh so tired)
I seem to get more creative ideas! Either that or I'm just delusional from lack of sleep...
One thing just seems to lead to another and it keeps extending such as this one...
It started off noticing a recommendation on Facebook to like a page called 'being mommy' so I just had to check it out (I mean what else am I supposed to do at 4 in the morning when the girls decide it's playtime?) I then noticed a link to pictures about a dad and photograph portraits of his daughter, which lead me then to look at one about pictures a dad colors in during his down time, then to look at another, a mum who draws faces and then the daughter takes the picture and adds on bodies then, of course, another post about a mum and the drawings she did using baby nap time (I guess by that point I was jealous LOL)

I don't know how exactly I made a link to this maybe it was because I was hum.. let's call it 'multitask thinking' (how else do you think at 4am?) about dressing up and role playing with my daughter tomorrow in the DAY! Not playing at sleeping time.
(I'll admit though we have played dress-ups in the middle of the night before spontaneously she just looked too darn cute to to say 'no sleeptime' I know I'm a sucker but they are only young once and I like to take all the opportunities I can to have enjoy being with them)
As she told me someone said her shoes were 'scarlet shoes' not 'pretty girl shoes' as well as a few other things about the clothes SHE CHOOSES  to wear.. she was starting to believe she wasn't pretty unless she wore the 'right clothes' THIS WAS DEFINITELY SOMETHING I DID NOT WANT MY DAUGHTER TO THINK OR FEEL
so rather than getting cranky at that person which would change nothing... I started setting out (not that we didnt always in someway anyway) to teach and show her that whatever she chooses to wear is pretty because SHE picked it and SHE loves it, people that matter are the ones who love you and accept you for who you are not what you wear, they don't try to change you and just because someone else doesn't like something doesn't mean you can't everybody is different and likes different things!
Always be yourself accept others the same way and don't be afraid to be or wear what you like.
Don't change yourself in anyway to be 'accepted' in someone else's eyes.

Soooo back to what it ALL led me to..
Writing a series of children's books for girls and have Leila help with the illustrations mainly about acceptance and that 'pretty' comes in many shapes and forms such as intelligence, kindness, strength and adventure (I'm not saying boys can't read them! They will just have girl lead charactures.. and hopefully reading them boys would also be able to see what true beauty is)

This then led me to the idea write a children's book for mainly for boys about strength (once again I'm not saying that girls can't read them! This series will just have boys as lead characters... and girls reading them can also see what true strength is) as I remembered Naite commenting about 'crying' and big boys are not strong if they cry and when he is grown up he will be strong if he doesn't cry because grown ups who cry are weak... He is a little older then Leila so we were able to talk to him about emotion and being able to have the confidence to show your emotion is strong, hiding emotion is weak (once again this is our personal opinion and the ideals we would like to show our children, the confidence to be yourself) So as he is very keen on story telling and drawing, I think we can use writing childrens stories together to reinforce acceptance and personal expression....

Now I just have to find the time to get some sleep and have the energy and time to follow up the idea properly! Bahaha I know I'm dreaming :P

♡ A dad's portraits of his daughter
♡ A dad's drawings from his kids coloured in
♡ A mum and daughter portraiture creation
♡ A mum's drawings added to babies sleep position

How I 'Do It All' and fail epically!

I always have lots of people say to me 'you are so good doing that/this, how do you find the time?' 'How do you do all that?'
The absolute, absolute truth is I don't!!
I have good intentions and try my hardest to 'do it all' because I WANT too.. If it doesn't work out I don't beat myself up I move on and leave it for when I do have time or I am up for it!
I don't 'do it all' as some people may think I only EVER do the extra things that I want too..
My trick to 'doing it all' is to not!
I set out a routine to do all the things that I NEED to do to live in our house and raise the kids.. then in that is where I find the short cuts to make my 'job' things easier and work them in.. After that I find the space where I can do the things I WANT to do, such as finding time for myself and doing the things I enjoy on my own (I fail at this one A LOT!) And doing all the family activities we want to do, all the things I want to do with the kids and things I want to do for the kids and other people!
If I have the opportunity to do something special I take it and leave other things for a later day or time.. (I don't sleep much lol) but honestly you should see my 'To Do List's' they are everywhere! I have many things I want to do and I just haven't yet.. I'm not supermummy! I am just trying to be the best mummy for my kids, which also just happens to mean I am super hectic, crazy, busy mummy lol but that's part of what I'm working on in my Soul Journey though and being so busy is something I do find hard to stop because at the end of the day I love the things I do! I think I would be bored if I wasn't always working towards something I really have to stop trying to do so many things at once though, that's why I have such a long 'To Do' list and plenty of unfinished & unstarted projects..
I guess I'll find out more on my journey!

So Much To Do!

So much I want to do and not enough time to do it!
I really need more hours in the night when the kids are asleep to be able to get the things done that I want to do & organise AND sleep!
Anyone else feel the same??
LOL I joke I know as a parent you do!

What would you get done if you had more time in the day/night?

I have cleaning and sorting... Ha but what I really would like to do is organise (I know im weird), create for myself, photography & make movies, finish gifts for other's and set up activities for the kids...

And I'm sure many, many more things......

The Ramblings of a Insane Mum!

Sunday 23rd March
(and a little bit of very early Monday)

The very first of my insane ramblings 'Welcome' and after reading this you may think I'm nuts and never look at this blog again but if you do decide to check back and follow along I  hope you enjoy the crazy ride that is our life!

Of course the reason this mum is insane is because of the kids lol.. your emotions become bipolar Aaaah.. The unknown side effects of having kid's.
The things that no one tells you till its too late like:
By the end of the day you are ready to pull your hair out till they finally fall asleep and you look at them and think how cute perfect and gorgeous they are.. well till they wake up again! Then you have to stop yourself from killing them till they fall asleep again (Everyone thinks that that's when you get some sanity back, but is it really?? LOL)
I am sure there is many more I could list and probably will later in 'ramblings of a insane mum' but the ones that I want to talk about now ARE the reason I am writing this now.
My personal weird, crazy, completely unexpected side effects of having kids.

The first one came with Leila, INSPIRATION.
I have always loved art and craft... painting, drawing, building, sewing ect.  But when I had Leila it intensified and my creative juices flowed more and more I built more things, I painted more, I re purposed furniture, sewed and much, much more. I was inspired so many more things and when I noticed something I would like to have I thought 'I can make that and this is how' and that was it would set out and design whatever it was and do it! Somethings where added to a list as I just didn't have the supplies and unfortunately some never became finished (or started) due to lack of avaliable alone time (another side effect of having kid's that no one tells you about :P)
As time continues on my inspiration just intensifies more and more and we are able to create together! And the time I do get alone I greatly enjoy continuing on with my 'side effect'

The second one came with Amelia, Expression.
I have NEVER been able to verbally express myself properly and I mean NEVER!
Yes I could use painting, drawing or sketching as a tool to express how I was feeling but I couldn't say it.. that is until now it wasn't that I was to scared to speak my mind, it was just that I didn't have the 'words' to do it.
(And i guess I'll admit that AJ has also helped me with this too, as we have in depth conversations and seem to be on the same mental wavlength, well most of the time. hehe. Plus you need an adult to talk to, to really be able to expand your emotional mind verbally and thankfully I found that wonderfully supportive, non judgmental person that I can express my opinion to! But once again that is another story for another time in my insane ramblings)
I was able to put my thoughts down in writing, well somewhat. I wasn't very good at it and didn't really enjoy it as I still couldn't manage to find the right words. But now not only am I able to verbally express myself but I can now write too and not only that but I want to and enjoy it!
I read other blogs, books and websites and it makes me want to tell others about my experiences and expressions too and share with the world my ideas, crafts and family! I now enjoy telling my story and knowing the history will be there for the kids to read when they are older. This 'side effect' is helping me to expand this blog and our life journal.
I really feel I have the 'side effect' caused by Amelia to thank for that!

The last 'side effect' was caused by Naite. I wasn't pregnant with Naite of course so it didn't come to me the same way and maybe all the other 'side effects' are caused the same as this one a mirror image, vibration or wave length, whatever you would like to call it, of a passion that the child has where you feed off/fuel each other to go further.. only time will tell though really.
And that little paragraph there is a slight excerpt of the 'side effect' Naite has given me.. QUESTIONING
I find I want to know more. I want to read, learn and investigate more and more.. I want to expand my mind and self by thinking outside of the box. I have always loved to read but now I find myself reading more the ever! (Well when I can)
This 'side effect' makes me want to open up my mind and makes me believe that we can do and are capable of soooo much more! The possibilities seem endless. It is also causing me to want to learn more to share and teach more. (even if it is slightly scattered brained another 'side effect' no one tells you about)

All these 'side effects' especially combined (along with the kids I guess :P) I really, really am enjoying and I can't wait to see where they take me, the adventures they take our family on and if you are actually reading along to my insane ramblings (maybe your insane too) sharing them with you!