Bit of this, bit of that :)

Today I felt very homely. I made a loaf of bread, from scratch with my hands, not a bread machine and it was awesome. I would take a picture, but its been half demolished now...oh look, I will be right back after I take a picture because I am rather proud of it. :)

I know that it doesn't look very pretty, but taste wise its wonderful and as the saying goes, "You should never judge a book by its cover." LOL. It takes a lot of time and effort to make your own bread and yes, I know that it is probably easier and only slightly cheaper to just go the shop and buy a payless loaf of bread, but where is the fun and the sense of accomplishment that comes with making your own bread? People have been doing it for thousands of years and I've shown myself that I too can do it!  

I love baking, especially yummy, fattening stuff hence my rotundish appearance ;-) and this Sunday is my little boy's 3rd birthday. He is into Toy story at the moment, so I have decided to make a flat cake as the base, a loaf sized cake to make Andy's bed and use chocolate Flakes and melted chocolate hardened into a bed head and end part of the bed. Coloured icing in blue with stars as decoration and marshmallow pillow and then I've got an 8 piece set of small toys to decorate the whole lot. I love making cakes for birthdays. Here are a couple of ones that I really loved doing. 

     I made this one, and the girls decorated it for me for my last birthday.

The sign says it all really :)

This was for Ayla's Under the Sea Party. 

So I will put up a pic of the finished cake from this Sunday at some stage. Still undecided if it will be going to the park or staying at home, as its supposed to be raining all weekend. We shall see. 

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind. 

Kahlil Gibran

Frustration

So incredibly frustrated at the moment. My lovely sister, when she wants to be :p, knows that I am the Ebay supremo, so asked me to bid on some hair extensions for her. I click it all on, get geared up to spearfish at the last second, which any diehard Ebayist knows is the only way to bid on stuff and then I click and it displays instead my sign-in page...at this point I am so stunned that I don't do anything for a couple of seconds and then the anger takes over..how dare it sign me out of its own accord! Suffice to say, we didn't win that particular auction, but there are other ones ending in the next couple of days so all is saved.

I really do have an addiction to Ebay..I am checking stuff out at least 3 times a day, I have purchased way too much stuff off it, and no doubt will do so for many years to come. I am a bargain hunter, and its turned into a little sport between hubby and I to see who can get the most for the least amount of money. Its really quite satisfying to get things at way below what you would pay for in the retail shops and I can't understand why other people don't strive to do the same. Ebay is a great place to get all sorts of goodies, new and used. And quite frankly, when you buy something brand new off the shelf and take it home, wash it once, its then classified as used anyway, so why not save yourself some money, and buy it used in the first place?

Everyone is always complaining about a lack of money, they have to work so much, they don't get any time off, etc etc...but seriously, do they really manage their money how they should? Do they go out and buy a whim right now, or wait for longer and perhaps get it at a much reduced price? Do they shop around and source it at a lower price from another store? Do they ask for a better price instead of the asking price, because you may be surprised if you are cheeky enough to ask a store person what is the absolute best price they can do it for, you might just get a few bucks off which you could use to get yourself a nice cuppa and cake after bargain shopping around all day.
BTW..Recently, I found a lovely butterfly necklace ( I am a butterfly and fairy freak too) on Ebay..hubby was cheeky and made them an offer of $60 less than their asking price and they accepted! You never know unless you ask :)

We don't have any credit cards, nor do we have any mortages or loans for anything. We have always dealt strictly with cash and if we can't afford something we want, we wait until we have saved up enough money and then buy it. This also gives you some prospective on whether you are buying something because you want it, or because you truly need it. We all have wants, some silly and frivolous, some not so, but we all have needs too which we can't live without. Prioritizing things is a necessity that everyone needs to learn along with patience. Good things come to those that wait :)

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.


KAHLIL GIBRAN

Sweetness

I love my kids more than anything else in this world. They are my life and moments like this morning at breakfast make me happy that I am so lucky to have three gorgeous little beings surrounding me every day. The way things have worked out in our household is that I have always tended to the children during the night, from newborn until now and in the future. Daddy has never had to get out of bed to do a night feed or change, and in return he then gets up with the kids when they wake in the morning and lets me have a lovely sleep in, and most mornings a nice cup of tea too! Yes, spoilt, I know but I love it ;-)  This might not work for other parents, but it is a great arrangement for us, and allows us both to get enough rest without both of us having an interrupted night time.

So, this morning upon waking, I walk down to the kitchen and DS 3 spies me and gives me a huge smile, whilst saying " Good morning, Mummy", then comes running at me to give me a hug and kiss. When I lift him up, he snuggles close and says "You are the beautifuliest sweetheart, Mummy." What a lovely way to greeted in the morning! It makes up for those times when he is having temper tantrums, and bursting ear drums with his high-pitched screams or fighting with his sisters and I want to just throw them all in the freezer for a half hour or so to chill them out a bit. *Please note, that statement is for illustrative purposes only and is not a recommended form of time out just in case someone reading this really thinks that I would do such a thing. :s So, it started my day off on such a lovely note of sweetness that I thought I would share it with everyone :)

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.


You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.


KAHLIL GIBRAN

What a day :)

Today was lovely..all my babies were in daycare so it was a Mummy/Daddy day which is very rare and not to be taken for granted. Usually it involves us going out for lunch, then groceries all while secretly laughing at other parents struggling with their own kids doing the exact same things as us...mean, I know, but I do feel sorry for them, but happy for me to have some time out. In a family of 5, time alone is almost non-existent and I wonder what on earth I ever did with my free time before children. The freedom to go anywhere, anytime, to do anything I wanted. These days, going for a shower or to the bathroom alone is a feat in itself!

I think everyone needs to have their own space and own time to do what they like when they like. You can lose yourself when you are a part of a relationship, especially when you become a mother and wife. Not only are you responsible for yourself, you also have a husband, and your children to contend with. Mothers do get the raw deal sometimes, but would I change it? Never...I love my life and though I might grizzle about being at the bottom of the food chain in our family, I can't see myself doing anything else and being as happy as I am. However, getting back to the alone time, I wish some days, I could just take off in my car and go wherever I want for how ever long I want. It is easy for my hubby to do that, as the home will still function just as it always does if he isn't here..on the other hand, when I go out of the house alone for more than an hour, all hell breaks loose at home and chaos will be awaiting me when I step back inside. Now, don't get me wrong, hubby is very capable of "babysitting" ( I love that phrase that fathers use to look after their own children, LOL), its just that men don't have the patience that women do when it comes to down to things. Its just one of many ways men and women are different to each other.

Today, hubby showed me how generous of a man he is, and how much he loves me. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful person as my partner for life and its been through good and hard times that we have stuck together and worked things out instead of running away from our troubles. Communication to me is the only key to a successful relationship. You can work through anything so long as you are able to listen to someone else's reasons and not take everything personally. Just because you think a certain way does not mean that someone else thinks that way as well. We are all different but we can work well together if there is give and take from each other, not just one giving and one taking all the time.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping; For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together; For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.  Kahlil Gibran

Random thoughts

It seems that these days to be "cool" you have to have a blog so here is my go at it. Its a bit like the whole Facebook thing. If you aren't on Facebook, ummm... what part of the dark ages are you from?? And so it is with Blogging...so what is your blog address?? ummm... you don't have a blog, oh my gosh!

So after doing the whole peeping tom thing and checking out the thoughts and daily lives of people that I do and don't know, via various blogs, I have noticed a trend, and one that I can't say I really like, or more importantly, I just don't get. Its the whole, Woe be me, my life sux so badly thing. I know that life is really hard to deal with sometimes. Things can turn so quickly and some days it would just be nicer to turn back the clock and start it all over again. Everyone feels like this at some stage, but some people really seem to love the drama. Yes, we get that you are going through a hard time at the moment, but do you have to go on and on and on about it to the point of obsession?

I am really over the whole Emo thing..being sad and miserable and hating life all day long, every day is really boring. Who wants to really read about that all the time? Its depressing and rubs off on all those around you. Get a grip, stop being a sook and focus on the good things that may have happened...sometimes the smallest things are the most significant.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran