Yesterday, on Echidna Day

Amelia finally got to see an echidna yesterday. She has heard so much about them. She was only a baby on the first Echidna Day. We went on an adventure to Kyabram Fauna Park for our Echidna Day. I rang them last week to make sure they had an echidna for us to come and see. I was really glad we could see one again. I must admit I got a little emotional to see this.

I will share some more photos of the day soon. We saw lots of Australian animals and it was a great way to spend the day with our family. I love family adventure days like this.

Happy Echidna Day

We are celebrating Echidna Day today. It is our special day for giving thanks and counting our blessings. Echidna Day is a family time, but it came about as a way to stay focussed on the happy things, like an echidna wandering into our yard, rather than the day the dreaded phone call came with Amelia's CF diagnosis.

You can read all about what Echidna Day is on this post from last year.

We hope you have a happy day today. Take some time to count the blessings that you are surrounded by and give thanks for what you have.

I am thankful for another year of joy and tears. I am thankful for the great health Amelia has enjoyed this year. There has been just the normal coughs and colds. Our children are growing older and understanding more about all areas of life (and Amelia's CF) which can make explaining things to them difficult at times. I am thankful we can help them understand things even though it's difficult. I am thankful for children who support and love each other (even when they fight). I am especially thankful God blessed me with such a wonderful and supportive husband. We have trials in our life, but we are so blessed too.

So what are you thankful for?

Buttony deer head canvas

While the kids were sick, I was desperate for some kind of crafty break. I haven't really had much time lately on the crafting and it is really sending me crazy!

I sent the kids outside to play and get some fresh air, then I set to work. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I am completely addicted to Pintrest. It is just the way I would like to view the internet. I found a great picture on there of a button covered canvas making a picture of a deer head. I thought it would make a great addition to my deer head wall in the office (which only has one deer head at the moment).

I had a canvas, buttons and I was given a big container of mod podge for my birthday this year. I googled deer head patterns and came across this one for a cushion cover (now also on my to-do list). I printed it out and traced it onto the canvas with pencil. I went over it in black marker and then got to the buttons.

I think I'd like to make another one, in reverse, but with only brown buttons. That would be fun. It was a nice quick craft and I am a fan of that!

I showed it to Tim and he described it as "interesting". Ha! I don't think he quite understands my fascination with the deer head. I think they are just so weird and ridiculous and that to me is a perfectly good reason to have it on my wall. Get it? 

I have so many things to post... Tomorrow is Echidna Day again. Can you believe it is 12 months since the last one? I am hoping we will get to go on an adventure for it... but it will depend on the weather a little. The kids have been creating a few echidna type things today that I will have to get pictures of. Hopefully, I will have some pictures to post of the day at the start of next week. Until then, have a great weekend.

Amelia's birthday

Amelia celebrated her fourth birthday at the beginning of September. (I am so far behind in posting!)

And guess what her big present was? 

Our baby girl is getting big!

Daddy time

Having to get through a dose of whooping cough in house full of people with lung conditions (Esther, Ellamay and I all have asthma and Amelia has cystic fibrosis), was a little stressful. The whole family was given strong antibiotics to get on top of the infection. Tim and I had tablets which were easy enough to swallow but about an hour later left a yukky taste in our mouths and made us feel a bit queasy. The 3 girls had some pretty horrible suspension mixture, the kid version of what we were taking. It had the same affect on them too. It required lolly bribery to get the kids to take it. Orange tic tacs were the best. Medicine, drink, tic tacs.

Amelia though, was not so easily convinced to begin with. We struggled and strained with her. The antibiotics she usually takes are apparently "yummy" and the new ones were "too yukky". It was horrible to have to force her to take it when she has to take medicine all the time. After one particularly terrible episode with medicine taking, Tim took her into her room and they lay on her bed talking about her art works to settle her down. Daddy can make things better some times. One benefit of being in isolation for the week was having Daddy time.

We were so relieved when Amelia realised that she had to take the medicine and started to take it quickly and without complaint. She is our super brave girl.

Esther and Ellamay went off to school today for the first time in over a month. HOORAY! I hope they have a great day, get exhausted and go to sleep early tonight. What do you think my chances are?

Deer head making and other catastrophes

Well. We have hit October. I managed one post in September. That is fairly poor isn't it. September was a pretty crazy month here one way and another. I am hoping October is much more straight forward.

I will be playing catch up for a bit, so many things have been going on!

Here's a quick run down on life up to now.

- Amelia had her Broncoscopy at the start of September. This is a routine procedure for CF she has each year to check the condition of her lungs. We thank God that this year's was uneventful unlike last year's.

- Amelia turned 4.

- We had a clinic visit to the big building for Amelia's results. Everything came back clear and she is as well as can be expected. Thank you God again.

- Esther developed a cough which got worse and eventually affected all of us (except Amelia!!!). Esther had weeks off school and we finally found out, after 3 trips to the doctors, it was whooping cough! That is a horrible condition and if you can be immunised against it or need booster shots, do it. We were in isolation for a week! After the whole family had a course of some really yukky antibiotics we were no longer infectious and could go out again! Esther and Ellamay are still coughing but it has improved a lot fortunately.

- School holidays with sick kids! Need I say anymore about that?

- Squeezing in a little bit of me time crafting to make a few random and quick projects to try and keep my sanity! The deer head photo above is one of those projects. I started that about a 3 weeks ago and it is still in that same state of mid-craft. I did actually finished a couple of things which I will be sharing soonish :-)

- We just welcomed to the world a new nephew. I have been working on a stitching project for him but it is probably too ambitious for me to be doing at the moment. It has already had a change of design once, it might need a second just so I have some hope of finishing it before he is a teenager.

So there you have it. Really, everything has been ruled by the kids lately. Esther and Ellamay were given a clean bill of health by the doctor yesterday so they will be off to start the new school term on Monday. HOORAY!!! It will be a "just you and me" day with Amelia at home. I have a terrific friend who has offered to have Amelia on a couple of days next week just so I can get some extra kid-free time and try to turn my house the right way up again. My friend is the bees knees.

I hope to get back to some kind of regular posting in the next few weeks but we shall see.

Book Week 2011

I had high hopes of posting this on the Friday this happened. Or at least on the weekend after. Here I am, in September and I am sure this happened in August. I am so tired at the moment I can't be bothered looking up the right date. Better late than never. Life has been full lately. Trips to the big building (Royal Children's Hospital) with Amelia and since then sick kids and sick kids and just for good measure, sick kids.

Esther and Ellamay's school celebrated Book Week.

Ellamay went as Pippi Longstocking. We recently read the Lauren Child illustrated version. The kids loved it. I am a fan of Lauren Child. Her work is so dreamy. (I'd love to decorate the kids rooms completely inspired by her work.)

I had to wire up Ellamay's hair and I started early in the morning because we hadn't managed to have a trial run. Fortunately, it worked.

Esther decided she had to be a skeleton. Not exactly story book motivated. Don't know if she has read a book about skeletons before. Whatever. It was a last minute decision. She just wore black clothes and I cut out a skeleton from white card and we stuck it to her with double sided tape. Is there nothing that stuff can't do! I had quite a few comments about how much work I had put in and being clever, which is all very pleasant to hear but I had to correct them. "I love the internet!" If you would like to print a skeleton to cut out (and wear) here is a link to where I found it.

Amelia was dressed up for getting messy at daycare, but insisted on wearing a crown. She wasn't so keen to talk to the principal.

So there you are. Completely late. But I had to post something to tell you we are still around. Posting may be pathetic for another couple of weeks. Can you believe I have had kids home for 2 weeks now because of this nasty virus that has settled on our house and now it's time for 2 weeks of school holidays! Sigh. How am I going to entertain them!?