Tuesday 31 March 2009

Easter preparation

I've been thinking about Easter for a few weeks but haven't gotten around to putting my thoughts into a coherent plan. So here's my rough guide to Easter week (Saturday 4th April - Sunday 12th April) and by the way we are keeping with a lamb theme as we did last year. And just to acknowledge these thoughts, I have freely used ideas from other people, from here and here.

Daily
  • Memorise John 3:16. Put the words in brightly coloured envelopes hung on a string and open one envelope each day.
  • Use resurrection eggs to tell the Easter story to Lucy every day
  • Read the bible daily with lenten candles
  • Put our Easter books into a basket in the lounge room for Lucy to read (J is for Jesus,
    Easter Egg Haunt, The Very First Easter, What Is Easter?)

Maundy Thursday

  • Roast lamb for dinner, talk about Passover

Good Friday

  • Go to church
  • Bake hot cross buns

Easter Sunday

  • Attend a sunrise church service at the beach
  • Eat a fun breakfast together including a lamb cake (a cake shaped like a lamb, not a cake made out of lamb)
  • Lucy gets a fun Easter basket of lamb related goodies
  • We tell each other "He is risen!" with the response "He is risen indeed!"

Monday 30 March 2009

Life keeps rolling on...

Life hasn't gotten less busy. But it has gotten warmer.

This weekend was a continuation of the gardening from last weekend, in between rain storms. More vegetables planted, more pine needles cleaned up, more bulbs planted etc etc Lucy had a ball splashing in the mud. Once the mud got inside her gumboots they were quickly discarded and she just kept running around barefoot. She was excited that her sandpit is back out in the yard filled with clean sand and spent a lot of time in it.

On Saturday night we had an awesome Mexican dinner at the Penny's. Charlie, Andrew and Lucy put on a puppet show for the adults. It was so fun to watch! Lucy didn't really understand what was going on but she just kept copying the boys and running around squealing with happiness. She couldn't stop talking about the puppets afterwards.

The highlight of the weekend was Sunday brunch at Deluxe to celebrate Alexis' birthday! Yay for friends, presents and devils food cake!!!

Thursday 26 March 2009

All dressed up for dinner

Lucy our beautiful 2 year old! She wanted to wear a necklace just like mummy and wouldn't settle for anything less than pearls!


Wednesday 25 March 2009

Future Chagall

Lucy has become quite an artist and it has happened rather abruptly. She went from scribbling lots of colours together to doing intricate line drawings in just a matter of days. We have been working on her colouring-in technique for a couple of months through some Kumon colouring books but all of a sudden she is creating these masterpieces. She even names them. She is very thoughtful when drawing them, being very methodical and slow in creating each piece.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Product of the week: Fried cheesecake nuggets

We visited the Longhorn Steakhouse a little while back and quite enjoyed our meal. However we didn't try the golden nugget fried cheesecake on the dessert menu (and now Andrew never will) It is described as "Creamy cheesecake lightly breaded and golden-fried to crisp perfection. Served over ice cream with strawberry sauce and drizzled with a raspberry-caramel swirl"

Not sure what it tastes like but it doesn't sound too appetising to me. Check out a flickr photo here.

Monday 23 March 2009

On our way to see 'Peter and the wolf'


Back in the garden again...

It wasn't quite warm enough to start gardening again but we had quite a bit to do. Last year it was too hot and then suddenly too cold to go outside so there were lots of jobs left over that needed doing. We raked needles, finished the edging on one of the front beds and moved mulch from our cut down trees. We fertilised our awesome rose bushes and we are hoping for another bumper crop. Lucy and Andrew planted their vegetables (which had been sprouted from seed in a mini greenhouse inside) and watered our new apricot tree. Next week we're planting bulbs, mulching our new 'pizza' garden bed and more weeding! After that Andrew is strictly on pizza oven duty. So close, yet so many more hours of work!

Wednesday 18 March 2009

A surprise diagnosis

Blogging has been non-existent lately due to busyness. Mostly general life busyness of dentists, doctors, friends illnesses, furniture repairs, playdates, gardening, travel agent meetings etc. However there has been one big reason for not blogging - a surprise diagnosis.

A couple of weeks ago Andrew was diagnosed with diabetes. It came as somewhat of a shock as he is not overweight nor is there a family history. [Though I must note that before our wedding I told Andrew that if he got self imposed diabetes from his terrible sugar diet that I was reneging my marriage vows. When he phoned me from the doctors office to tell me he had diabetes (which we had suspected) I immediately reassured him that I was NOT reneging my vows]

And just so that you know, diabetes is not caused by eating too much sugar.

We are going through a large adjustment period. We LOVE food. We especially love desserts. But not enough to make one of our family members sick nor enough to switch to artifical sweeteners and give ourselves cancer (and yes I do believe the artificial stuff is extremely bad for you, check out the miniscule testing conducted prior to FDA approval).

So we are going through the process of working out meal plans and reading a lot about diabetes. It is going to take us some time to adapt. Desserts are out, salads are in and pizza bases will be whole wheat. Given Andrew's terrible diet and his penchant for sugar God has been gracious in helping him to go cold turkey in giving it all up. He is even eating salad for lunch every day! Can you believe it? I hardly can but I am thankful that we are now fighting over the last bits of salad in the bowl at dinner time.

I've turned comments off on this post. If you want to talk to us about this issue, email us directly. I'll attempt to start blogging again next week.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Now I know the books of the Old Testament...

Lucy has been learning the books of the Old Testament and she now knows from Job - Malachi. However it's been difficult to catch her on video saying them. Andrew captures some of it here but, in this video, she is clearly lip-reading from Amos on.


Tuesday 3 March 2009

Product of the week: Milo in a can

We miss milo! Yes you can buy it here at Walmart but it is different. The Walmart version is made in South America and it is darker and in bigger chunks. It is full of corn syrup (as well as sugar) so it is ALOT sweeter. Lucy doesn't care but bear in mind when you are used to something and then it changes sometimes the changes are not for the best.

That being said we also discovered pre-made milo in a can. It says on the can best drunk after refrigeration. When we had pizzas the other week Joe needed a glass of milk and we had run out! So we gave him this can of milo. He liked it!