Bay day?

Have you ever had a really bad day? Been in a really grumpy mood, huffing and puffing and breathing hard all day, adding to the stress of being stressed.

I have those days. I am trying to notice that it is happening and then try and pull myself out of it. I am trying to notice things that will make me smile later on in the day... like driving this morning and I went past a bus stop and there was an elderly (my grandmother has taught my children after many grumps and humphs that she is not OLD she is elderly) lady sitting on the seat swinging her legs like a child. It made me smile, and then as I drove further down the road, I looked in the rear vision mirror and saw the little legs under the wall of the bus stop still swinging. That made me smile harder.

And so when my day is yukky and my brow is furrowed and I want to go to bed, I go through my catalogue of 'smile harder's and draw on something to pull me out.

And of course, we can always just look around and see that someone else is having a bad day too... we are not the only ones... little people have bad days, good days, mean days, mummy days, happy days, so many different days. Perhaps I could teach mine to draw on themselves to brighten up their days too.

After all, who wants that grumpy face around...

I am humbled

...by this tiny Little Man who lays so relaxed and open on the dentists chair. What trust they have in us and to all that we introduce them to. Little darlings... it really hits home when you see them so vulnerable and yet so trusting.

But on the light side, I giggled and giggled and in the end had to take the photo. Such a crack up of a kid. He is gorgeous with his sunnies on and the legs all relaxed and floppy. Every time they took the dental instruments out of his mouth, he would give me a huge smile.

The shock horror tantrum of it all hit when we reached the car... the indignity of it all, the shock of having a teeny weeny filling, the need for it to be 'out' of my mouth, the strange feeling of a foreign body in place of his tooth. It was disastrous and went on and on and on. And back we go on Monday for some fissure seals... Heaven help me then!

Big brother was so supportive, upping his total fillings to three instead of one, and saying that soon it will be fine, you won't even notice it soon.

"YES! YES I WILL NOTICE IT SOON! BECAUSE SHE SAID I WOULD GET USED TO IT SOON AT THE DENTISTS AND NOW WE ARE NEARLY AT SCHOOL AND I CAN STILL FEEL IT. GET IT! GET IT!"

Hmmmm... Wish me luck!

Introducing Ruby...

After writing that last entry about Ruby and her bunny, I got to thinking that perhaps you might like to know who Ruby is.

Well.Ruby is Ava's sister.

They are chocolate spoodles and they are our 'girls'. If we had had girls, they be called Ava and Ruby. But we didn't, and so we have our boys and our girls. They are the most darling little creatures. Ava is very intense, very possessive, very affectionate. Ruby is fun loving, young, energetic, mischievious. They are sisters.

They arrived together at the airport in one of those big carrier boxes. We had told the boys that two girls were coming to stay with us...

"What are their names?" they asked.
"Ava and Ruby."
"Oh. Why are they coming?"
"Just for a holiday, but if they like it, maybe we could ask them to stay forever. "
"Hmmm... what about their mum and dad... won't they miss them?"
"Oh, sure they will, but they have many many children and it is hard work to look after them all and when we said that we love girls and didn't have any, they offered for us to have Ava and Ruby for a visit."
"Oh."
Silence.
"What do they look like?"
"Well, they both have brown hair and brown eyes I think. Their hair is curly like their mums hair. They are only short, like... so short, you could probably pick them up even!"
"Oh. Like dolls."
"Sort of."

When we got to the airport, the boys were looking at all the children."Is that them? Is that them?" And even when we had the crate and were picking the puppies up in our hands they were still looking for 'the girls'. Not until I said 'Hello Ava and Ruby. Welcome to our family" did they understand that these gorgeous little puppies had come to stay.

And so it is... our two boys and our two girls (and dour chickens, and our mice, and our guinea pigs and our fish...)

Where is Bunny?

Bunny #1 came to us a long time ago from Father Christmas. But over the years she has lost a leg or two, a couple of arms, even a torso. So when I found this NEW bunny, exactly the same (BUT BIGGER) I had to bring him home for Ruby.

As soon as she saw him, she took off out into the garden with him and rekindled their friendship.

Well, loads and loads and bucketloads of rain and this morning I found bunny, securely deposited under the mouse house and substantially covered in dirt. Did Ruby bury bunny to keep her safer than the last bunny? I felt so terrible picking her up, like I was reading someone's diary! I washed her off and now she is on the line dripping away. Ruby keeps looking up at her, wondering I suppose when she is going to come down and in fact, how she got up there.

Some things are just a mystery, even to dogs.

Love this site!

Love this...

Dear Toof Fery...

He said:
"To Toof Fery
This toof is for you. Thankyou.

She said:
"Dear Little Man, Thankyou so much for your beautiful letter. We don't often get letters. I was so excited, I took it straight to the Faerie Queen. She was so happy to see that someone remembered us! She wrote this letter straight away. She wants you to know that you are doing a wonderful job of cleaning your teth and that you should keep cleaning them very well every night. That way, we will be able to use all your teeth in our castle.
Sleep well little one.
Lots of love your new friend
Freya the Faerie"

He said (translation):

"Dear Toof Fere
Can you play with me at daytime?.
Little Man"

We have mislaid the response, but basically Freya said that she couldn't unfortunately. If the faeries played all day, they would be too tired at night to collect the teeth and then the castle would never be built.

And Little Man accepted this wholeheartedly and that was that... however... we do have one more tooth very close to coming out... so perhaps he'll be writing more letters to the Toof Fere.

I hope so.

A long time ago...

...a little angel came into my garden to pick flowers for my table.

I came across this photo as I was looking through old stuff and remembered (with tears in my eyes) how lucky I am to be blessed with such beautiful children. But even more lucky to be given the eyes and heart to notice these things as they happen. Even the memory of these moments makes me smile harder.

I've done it again!

Couldn't help myself. Had to do another 'drop'. This time I did it while the kids were having swimming lessons. It's pretty funny. I sit there waiting, waiting, waiting for everyone to swim, and swim and learn and play and swim some more and my mind gets very busy. I started thinking about 'the drops' and before long I had a heavy addiction to 'dropping' and was needing some kind of psychiatric help. But where do you get help for 'dropping'?

Anyway, I think the people that took this one were a nice family. I am happy about that one. And the kids were pretty excited too to think of someone taking our toy. That makes it all the more special... soon I'll get the kids making things...

Inspirational

This darling darling girl is one of the most beautiful people I have known of... Her love of all things, her beloved family, her gorgeous children and her cherished husband is something we could all learn from. I find her inspirational and I wish her every single bit of love and assistance in the world for her journey ahead. With the help of NieNie I am finding the hidden value of many things in my life, and I am forever grateful for that.

Visit NieNie's blog and view life through the eyes of an angel.

This little dog...

This dear little dog came along and visited us as we lay enjoying Cabarita Beach in the holidays. "Oh! A sausage dog! I love sausage dogs!" screams my neice in excitement. We all gathered around him and gave him loads of affection and attention.

He thanked us by peeing on my bag.

I don't what it is with me, but I have had soooo many dogs pee on my things while I am at the beach. I must have some smell to me that attracts them. Soon I'll be the crazy sheila on the beach with the gigantic zip lock bag.

Oh dear!

Dave and his Dad

Meet Dave the Dog (and his Dad).

Somehow, somewhere, me in all my wisdom I decided to spin this beautiful dogs hair into some wool and knit this dear fellow a beanie.

It is a very organic-looking beanie, I must admit, definitely not for everyone, but for this nutter who absolutely adores his doggy, it does just fine. Mind you, I call him a nutter, but I think perhaps I too am a nutter for doing it also. It's not everyone who meets a dog in the park, asks for its fur next time it has a haircut and then decides to spin it!

My mum was a godsend. I had put it in the too hard basket for about 6 months, and then she said "NOPE! We're going to DO IT!" It only took about a day to card and spin, then knit the beanie. It was a smelly job, and there were little bits of Dave hair EVERYWHERE, but it was all soooooo worth it when I saw the joy on Dave's Dad's face when he popped that crazy beanie on his little bald head.

Another good deed done... I like to make people happy in different ways. I could have bought a bag man a burger, but I didn't. I made a beanie out of dog hair for a looney tunes.

Later

My first 'DROP'

Today I made my first 'drop'. I just love the idea of The Toy Society and making something for someone for no reason at all except to spread the lurve.

I was so excited... the adrenalin was pumping, I was feeling ill in my belly. I kept thinking, "What if someone sees me? What will they think?" But hey, they might think: "It's a lady with a camera, OR It's a lady with a bag, OR It's a lady walking along the street." I felt excited, silly, guilty, naughty. It's quite hard to plant something somewhere and have no one see you do it, and then take a photo of it.

Anyway, I had fun. I dropped 2 toys off and both were gone within the hour. Soon enough The Toy Society will include it on the list of 'drops' and then hopefully the new owners will surface.

I encourage you to do it too. It was sooo easy!

Buggar! I just trod on a chook!

My poor Roxy! I just went up to let the chickens out (5 eggs in the nest, glad to see everyone is doing their job) and they were soooo eager to get out and about and start the typical day in the life of a chicken that they all crowded before me as I walked, and I trod on Roxy's tiny scrawny little foot!

Like she doesn't have enough to deal with! (No tail, no parson's nose really after a visiting dog (Bloody Harry! - I really do love you 'arry) decided to eat it one day as a snack!) She squawked, and looked at me with those chicken eyes, so I rushed off and ran inside... but then, I shut the door behind me and then there she is standing looking in through the glass at me... Yes... I admit it... I let the chicken into the house... But just Roxy and Surfy. Roxy comes along every day into the kitchen and has a look around. Surfy Murfy not so much, although I have to say I have found the pair of them at times in the spare bedroom, and more regularly on the couch in the playroom. I know Roxy feels like she is a human being. I think that comes from the recovery period after the de-tailing episode. She lived in here with us while she recuperated. Now she thinks she owns the joint.