A New Valentine's Tradition

We love a good family tradition in our house. Traditions bind you together as a family. It's the little things, as well as the big things that you do together that are important. Songs you sing together, things you say to each other (Bec tells me "love you to the moon and back" every morning when I drop her off for school), regular "events" (Friday night movie and freddo frogs).

I am always on the look out for new traditions I can incorporate into our family. Recently I saw an idea for the lead up to Valentine's Day. We don't really celebrate that one at our house with romantic dinners or gifts but it is a good reminder to tell our families that we love them. Everyone needs to hear this and they need to hear it often. So every morning between now and Valentine's Day, when the girls and David wake up, there will be a new heart on their bedroom door telling them something that I love about them. (David's will actually be on our bathroom mirror where he will see them while he is getting ready for work.)

 
To make it even easier, I sat and cut out lots of hearts last night while I was watching some TV and wrote on them. Now I can just grab one each night before I go to bed and stick it with the others. The girls were curious to find these on their doors this morning and I look forward to seeing their excitement as the hearts multiply.

Spread the love peoples!

I LOVE Australia.

Happy Australia Day long weekend everyone! Yes, I do realise it is now Wednesday but I have been reflecting on how lucky we are to live in this amazing country. I am so grateful to live in a place that is peaceful, not ravaged by wars and that allows myself and my family to live with freedom and have the life we desire. We also live in a land of extreme weather conditions ... floods and bushfires .... and my heart goes out to those many families that have been affected by these disasters in recent months.

For us, Australia Day is a time to relax and celebrate our good fortune to live in this wonderful place with friends and family. We are lucky enough to have some friends who love to theme occasions as much as I do and we have such a ball together. We have a BBQ lunch by a little creek where the kids can all clamber over the rocks and splash in the water. As you know, I love to colour coordinate everything and this year saw our family in traditional green and gold.

Events like this also give me the opportunity to indulge my creative side in the kitchen. I made koala cupcakes this year. Very cute and easy to boot! First make chocolate cupcakes and ice them with chocolate icing. Then cut a pink marshmallow in half and ice the outside edge with icing before rolling in dessicated coconut. After positioning the marshmallow ears at the top of the cake, add a black jellybean nose and 2 brown M&Ms for eyes. Cover the rest of the cake with coconut and voilá! Koala. (One of our non-dangerous wildlife specimens.  We boast many of the most dangerous creatures on the planet; a fact that Australian's are secretly quite proud of!) Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!

Happy New Year

2013... wow! When did that happen? It seems like we just blink and another year passes by. 2012 was a VERY busy year for me and sadly I had to put my blog to the side for the second part of the year but in 2013 I am back! I have so many things to share with you and I am so excited to be writing again. I will continue to post on a range of topics including organising projects, crafts, fun stuff the girls and I do together, favourite recipes and lots more. If there are particular things you would like me to write about, feel free to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

And so we have a new year; full of opportunities, goals, new things to try, things to achieve. I always spend a good part of our summer holiday thinking about what I want the coming year to be like. I reflect on the past year and try to work out what it is I will do for this year to make it better. I am a highly visual person. I find it really helps me to be able to see my goals regularly to remind me of what it is I am trying to achieve. So this year I have a new way to display them around the house and in key locations.

Some of the biggies on my list this year revolve around limiting technologies and being present with my family. I have a tendency to be easily distracted by my laptop ... Facebook, Pinterest, email. These are all amazing tools but they can also be huge time wasters if you let them. 5 minutes on Pinterest  is the equivalent to 1 hour in real time! I have had a serious think about my priorites for this year and at the top of my list is my family. They shouldn't get the left overs of my time, they should get my prime hours. So accordingly, I have decided to try to limit my computer time to a short block during the school day and then in the evening after the girls are in bed. My focus when they are here after school will be on them. We all know how quickly they grow and this time will be gone before I know it. I want to cherish every minute. Afterall, this is exactly what I always wanted; I don't want to waste one moment.

Having everyone leave the house in the mornings nourished of mind, body and spirit is another goal for this year. Too often last year we seemed to be rushing in the mornings and I yelled at one or more children before we had reached the school gates; to hurry up, to remember to pack a drink bottle, to grab their homework, to please NOT redo their hair for the seventh time that morning. This year, we will ALL be getting up earlier. No hitting 'snooze' on the alarm clock. Up and at 'em! School bags and activity bags packed the night before as much as possible so we can have calm mornings.

2013 will also see us all being more creative. I have a list of projects I would love to get stuck into this year. I also really want to teach my girls to cook and to sew; two things I really enjoy doing. So no doubt it will be another busy year but I am up for it. Bring it!