Intimidated

OK, put me in the kitchen and I am right at home. The same can not be said for the garden. I have decided that the reason I am 'agriculturally defective' is because I was over-exposed to it as a child.
Mum, Dad, you know what I am talking about! Sara and I were given the job to weed. Some may say this was a fair request, however we had to weed an acre of ploughed ground that was 'mulchless' at that point. Basically we had to prevent grass growing where grass would instinctively grow.

(This was taken by Karen in 1985 after I was told I couldn't come inside until my vege patch was weeded, despite the rain!)
Each Saturday we would start in the morning and did not stop until any green shoot which had dared to poke its head from the moist ground had been ripped by its roots and hurled on the waste pile. To start with, friends would come by and offer to help so we could play with them sooner. Eventually they stopped coming, realising it was a job that had no end!

It is amazing my social skills progressed at all.

I thought all this was behind me, however we were given two Jacaranda trees for Christmas by our lovely neighbours and my inadequacies as a gardener have flooded back to me in a wave of fear. The trees were in pots. They are still in pots four months later. I knew that to water them was a good thing so I put the smaller pots in bigger pots with water in the bottom. I have gradually watched them start to turn a bit brown.


Having an interest in psychology I have wondered if I am rebelling against my childhood and am letting them die on purpose, but I have dismissed this in favour of the 'ignorance theory.'

Knowing I am responsible for them and feeling guilty that our neighbours will ask after them, I read the label to see what I should do. It said to prepare the ground, somewhere moist but well drained?? I decided to drive to the nursery to ask their advice, knowing I am not good with growing things. (I should probably mention that Dad gave me a Bonsai tree for my Christmas present when I was 17, as he knew I loved anything Japanese. The Bonsai tree was about 60years old at that point, and after strictly adhering to the instructions, it died in my care after only 4 months!)
I asked a nice man in the nursery what I should do and what I should put in the hole. Surprisingly, he said to just put the trees in the ground and water them well. I was prepared to buy anything he told me, so I am glad he was honest, but if these trees die, I will be assuming he was negligent and there was some ingredient he should have told me about.

This is so intimidating for me. I have grown a bit attached to my trees in pots and I want something I plant to survive.

This is my goal for the little things.





By the way, thanks Mum and Dad for exposing me to the outdoors... I am sure that my distaste for gardening has contributed to improving my skills in the kitchen, so my family have you guys to thank for that too!

Geocashing with Emma

The kids are on school holidays at the moment and on Wednesday Emma and I took the kids to Rouse Hill Regional Park. It is a great park with lots of play areas, nature walks, a maze and bike tracks. It also had four geocash locations throughout the park. It was my first time geocashing and it was fun to hunt through the park and manage to find all four of them.

Not to be out done...

When Bailey and I were home alone, we decided to paint a feature wall in his room too. Fortunately the paint I used in Mitchell's room was perfect for Bailey's as well. It really finishes the room off and it looks a lot more like a boys room now.
Bailey and his monkey love it!

A busy birthday

Well, our little Mitch has reached 12 years old. Although he may look young for his age, he has always been very grown up. A day before his birthday, the YM were going away on a canoe trip and overnight camp. Andrew took two days off work and was going as a leader. Mitch was able to go because he was turning 12 during the trip. It was great to have Andrew go along with his 3 sons and it left Bailey and I some time together.

I used the opportunity of having Mitchell away to redecorate his bedroom as one of his birthday surprises. I painted, made decorative art for his wall and assembled his bed and new linen, a bedside table and a lamp to give him a more grown-up room. He has had our original bunk beds which were looking really old and he had been asking for a while if we could decorate his room.Mitchell is very in to dirt-bikes, but not wanting to have his room covered in ugly motor bike pictures I had to come up with a decorating idea which we could both live with.

I painted one wall navy blue and then bought some blank canvases and painted them a base colour of the other walls. I then went to our local motor bike shop and explained to them what I was doing. They were super helpful and I came away with two tyres (free), which was great as I was hoping to keep to a reasonable budget. I painted the tyres with black paint and then rolled them over the three canvases to give a tyre mark. I got covered in paint, but I was really happy with the result.

Anyway, I had planned to hang one tyre on the wall and had bought cork board to fit inside it as a pin board for Mitchell, but Andrew was concerned his room would look like a pit stop and was also nervous about drilling holes to hang a heavy tyre on our new walls so we decided against it. I had it finished just in time for them to arrive back from their trip by 3pm. I waited in the room with the camera for Mitchell's reaction.

Before bed time though, Emma, Josh and Maya came over for dinner and cake. It was a fun night, but after racing to get it finished in time, I was ready for an early night too.

Andrew managed to get a shot of me with my phobia about blowing out candles... yes I am a germ freak! I hate birthday candles on cakes because I think it is disgusting to blow (or in some cases spit) all over a cake that everyone else then has to eat.

All trying to claim the biggest piece...

Mitchell is well aware who has that priveledge!

Josh and Joel (Mitchell's friend) showing a little more patience.The end of a big birthday. Mitchell was really happy with it and even wanted to get to bed early to sleep in his new bed.

Creative cook

The thing I miss most about the boys not being little any more is that there are not so many cute things they say. Tonight however, they did make me laugh.

Mitchell was helping me in the kitchen with spaghetti bolognese and asked me with enthusiasm if we should add some 'herbal essence' to the sauce.
He knew the phrase was familiar and supposed it was a herbal version of vanilla essence until I pointed out that he might be confusing it with a the popular shampoo.

Sound Effects

Tonight Andrew did FHE and was talking to the boys about the battle of the 2000 strippling warriors. When he was finished explaining it in his words, he said he was going to play the actual thing, (meaning the recorded passage from the scriptures). Baileys eyes lit up and he asked, "Will we hear sound effects like 'Aaargh' and stuff?"
That's really bringing the scriptures to life!