Evidence of undomesticity

On Friday afternoon the TV comes on again - and my children loll in exhausted heaps. If I didn't insist on food and drink being consumed on the tiled areas of the house they'd never move!

And after a traditional first bath, here's the real way to bath a fifth child. In the hand basin. I found it remarkably quick and easy, but the Little Prince wasn't so sure.

And a gratuitous sleeping baby photo.

Baby smiles

It's hard to catch the elusive Little Prince smile, but we finally caught one on camera! He's a very smiley responsive baby, and even chortles appreciatively if he's particularly impressed with something. It's amazing how fast he's growing!

Evidence of domesticity

This is the way I make our drinking yoghurt. I make a double batch at a time but split the commercial pack and top it up with powdered milk to reduce sugar and cost! My handy Tupperware digital scales make it much easier!

First bath

It's hard to believe that we've made it to six weeks without needing a bath, but thanks to washcloths and a lack of heating, the Little Prince has not been bathed since his arrival!


I was worried that he might take a while to acclimatise to bathing, but he really enjoyed himself. Possum brought in the camera to record the action!




He even enjoyed being dried and dressed.

Christmas Crazy Commercialism...

The pamphlet run is a stern lesson in commercialisation - we can't believe there's just so much JUNK mail! And it truly is JUNK mail. Our biggest delivery so far has been 17 pamphlets at once, which was challenging because of the sheer bulk of 17 pamphlets that included a large newspaper style addition (The Good Guys are NOT our friends!) as well as the time it took to fold that many pamphlets.

One of the saddest things is that "No Junk Mail" stickers don't really save the environment because it's in the pamphlet distributor and the pamphlet deliverers' best interests to pretend they don't have as many "No Junk Mails" in their area. Our distributor is a little horrified that we actually return all of the pamphlets that aren't delivered.

Our latest delivery is "only" twelve pamphlets at a time. We're getting quite systematic about the deliveries - we put out two lines of pamphlets in size order on the dining/table tennis table so that we can have two people working at once. Dh is in charge of bagging, and has it down to a fine art, using the right number of recycling bags for each street.

Dh kept us entertained last night reading our latest family novel, The People of Sparks, while we folded.

Ginger Rose loves her soccer ball...

With difficulty we've convinced her to play outside not in the kitchen!

Meeting Grandma L

Grandma L certainly has a way with little boys - apart from bringing them fantastic knitted presents she's clearly the funniest thing! Andrew beamed and giggled away with Grandma last night!

5 weeks

I can't believe how fast my babymoon is flying. I am enjoying every precious moment more than I thought possible - well, almost every moment!

Of course, Ginger Rose sees the camera and says "take my photo, please" so for every photo of the Little Prince, we have a corresponding Ginger Rose photo!

Family chiropractic

I was very conscientious about maintaining a good chiropractic schedule during pregnancy, which paid off big-time with my overall health, well-being and the super-easy (for me!) birth - but then I slacked off with inevitable results. So, we're all back on scheduled chiropractic visits.

Dh has been using a new technique, network care, that works wonders for us all. It has the added benefit of allowing dh to treat more than one of us in the same room so it's a real family bonding experience. The Ginger Ninja and Little Prince shared this appointment.

The Little Prince was so impressed he fell asleep there!

Time in the gym

Can you believe the Little Prince is happily snoozing while two under-10's basketball teams train noisily just feet from his pusher! I thought I'd be a conscientious mother and actually stay to watch training. Ginger Ninja and Possum disappeared from the carpark and spent Briar Rose's training shooting hoops down at the middle school court, where they were joined by Ginger Rose after ten minutes spent exploring the bleachers, ten minutes exploring the toilets and change rooms and ten minutes meandering down the path to junior school.

Off to Paint and Play

Our Tuesday morning special event. Ginger Rose is getting quite good at knowing what each day of the week means - Monday is work at the clinic, Tuesday is Paint and Play, Wednesday is playgroup day, Thursday is errand day, Friday is the day the TV goes back on again once the big children get home from school.

Credits: The Little Prince is dressed by Grandma E in a very sweet outfit that is just perfect for daylight-savings induced cold mornings. Ginger Rose is in hand-me-down clothing that won't be missed if the paint doesn't make it to the paper!

More handknitting...

I couldn't resist trying on the wonderful matching outfit from Grandma L, who not only knitted these longies and jumper, but also spun and dyed the wool!

The Little Prince enjoyed being a model, and we decided that the outfit should still fit in autumn and winter next year but is just perfect for cold late spring mornings!

Ginger Rose drinks coffee

Wow - that girl knows how to make a babycino a full body experience!

She really enjoyed being the only one to come for a coffee with Mum and Dad :).

4 weeks

A quick record of a 4 week old Little Prince. Shown wearing a minkee cover over a flannel fitted nappy.

New Pram

Well, of course it's not brand new, but I'm very happy with this bargain!

Ginger Rose won't need it for long, but isn't big enough to walk to the shops and back yet.

The Little Prince fits nicely even if he doesn't look overly impressed with the above-the-head shoulder straps!

Who's holding the baby?

Grandad D enjoyed his first cuddles with his youngest grandchild this week.

Watched admiringly by his youngest grand daughter!

Industrious home or slave labour?

Possum has had a particularly busy week. Last week, he arranged to start a pamphlet run - 390 houses, and so far they've each needed 19 pamphlets delivered! It's been a pretty tough beginning - we didn't realise how much work would be involved, but Dh has worked out a system that should make collation and delivery much more streamlined.

Fortunately, we have enough hands in this house to make the work a little lighter, and we were also blessed with Grandad D's help as a driver and chaperone for Briar Rose. We think the pamphlet run will be a great family team building opportunity...

Possum also sang at Parliament House with the school choir and represented the school on the (winning) school team at the local school basketball competition, so missed 1 1/2 days of "real" school as well as dealing with the extra pamphlet delivery workload!

Party at paint and play

And another party for Ginger Rose - Paint and Play provided balloons, cakes and face painting for all this week.

Ginger Rose thought it was great fun, but missed her good friend, B, and was unusually easy to persuade home!

The Little Prince slept through the party, waking only for quick drink.

Guess who's another year older?

Dh had another birthday this week! We all celebrated with a last-minute cake made of lamingtons topped with whipped cream, chopped chocolate-mint sticks and candles (entirely my fault for not realising that the local store no longer sells cakes)! The Little Prince is just visible partying on in his dreams in his rocker behind Dh.

This week is also memorable for my almost total reliance on slow cooker cooking - we're all particularly pleased with my mastery of this recipe for a chocolate pudding cake:

Crockpot chocolate pudding cake

1 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 T cocoa
2 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup milk
2 T veg. oil
1 T vanilla

Sauce
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup hot water


Rub the inside of crockpot with butter. Put all cake ingredients in med. bowl and mix till smooth. Add to crockpot.

Put sauce ingredients in jug and mix till smooth.

Pour sauce evenly over the cake batter. Do not mix.

Cover and cook on high for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or till your toothepick is clean when inserted. When done, turn off crockpot and let sit for 30-40 minutes.

The sauce will be at the bottom. Spoon a chunk of cake on a plate, spoon over some sauce and top with vanilla ice cream. Delicious! And if you make a double helping and leave it for another night it's even tastier!