Two things I forgot to mention - one being the great "picnic day" at DH's work.  It is hard to get family time due to DH being a casual and on call - and never being able to plan ahead.  SO it was really good for him to be able to take us out for the day - courtesy of his work.  They had a lovely BBQ lunch, a snack stall (with free food/drink vouchers), a jumping castle, dodgem cars, a merry go round and pony/cart rides.  All for free!  We had a great day - despite the weather - and it was so nice just having fun as a family without having to watch the purse strings...

The other being the lovely time we have spent in the garden, which has been much neglected lately.  WE have just harvested asparagus, artichoke, broad beans, snow peas, turnips and rocket.  It is so lovely to eat our own grown food - though not always my choice in vege, it is making me try to cook new things and learn ways of making some things tasty - some we just eat raw of course.  Got a tip though - wash your artichoke thoroughly - I was warned and thought I had, but was was just getting through the delicious petals when I discovered a visitor - an earwig right in the heart, mmmm....  not so yum (but the rest, oh, yum, must grow more!)

I was sooo looking forward to school holidays - and they have flown by again, all too brief...  And what have we done?  Not half of what we had planned...  My cleaning out & reorganising the house has gone by the wayside - too hard with kids around.  We have slept in a few times, been to the library to learn about bugs, been to three birthday partes, been down to the National Park and spent the day with some aboriginal teachers, been to playgroup, done some craft - oh, and I almost forgot, sent the kids away with their aunty for a weekend.

Royston's highlights include spending time with his cousin (and aunty) and his friend (who we took out for the day - to the movies and McDonalds).  The downlights (is there such a word?) being the fact that his sister was around all holidays (except for movie day) - and they fought - a lot!  Leading mummy to ask "what do I have to do to get you two to get along together?", with the response "sell her to the moon - then I can go visit her when I'm an adult!"  (Note, In between they have played beautifully and been lovely together).

Bella's highlights included going with her cousin and aunty on her first "adventure" away from home - and Aunty S introducing her to chocolate milkshakes (previously she has only had pink or yellow).

My highllights - for sure a weekend without the kids - sleeping in, going to an open garden, out for lunch and dinner, and a spot of winetasting.  Lovely....  But I have really enjoyed not rushing around all the time, just being with the kids (& hubby) - and loving my big six year old to whom we no longer have to read (but still do for fun), to whom we cannot spell any more ( to hide words - like ice cream) and who has not said once "I'm bored", despite not being glued to the tv all fortnight.  Yay!

IN fact we go into the final term of Kindergarten feeling quite relaxed and refreshed and positive - after a very stressful time last term, this is great news - and I hope it will continue...

Here it was obviously a lot less dramatic than other places - at about 5.30am as DH left for work he told me the dust storm was starting - and he had to drive to work in it.  He said he topped up his wiper fluid half way and still used that up by the time he got to work. 

By teh time we left the house for school - 9ish - it was already pretty clear and settling, just turning cold.  My car - though normally brown anyway - became a lovely reddy brown.  I cleaned the windows at the petrol station, but not the rest (not wasting precious water on that!) so now I have a reddy brown car, with clean, shiny windows - ha! 

Everything is lightly coated, so I hope the rain will wash it off soon.  Speaking of which we have had several violent downpours in teh last few days - but not much rain to speak of - and we desparately need more.  I am told next month will be wet - I hope so!!

Well, apparently I am the featured member this month - what a privelege and a shock!  I haven't been on for a few weeks as life has been a bit crazy, but now I feel obliged to pop in and say HI to everyone - Hi!

My last post was to ask for prayer for Mum - well, someone was listening I have to say.  She has given us all a bit of a fright, but we are very thankful to have her here with us still and getting stronger every day.    The surgery went well as planned, but a few days later, while Bella and I were visiting, she had a cardiac arrest and had to have CPR, then emergency surgery and was on life support.  It was a bit dicey and worrying to say the least.  She was kept under for a couple of days and had a pacemaker fitted.  Now, after 2 1/2 weeks she has been transferred to our local hospital and is recovering well and undergoing physio etc...  She looks better and feels better - though this is just the beginning of a lengthy recovery.

I have finally understood just how tiring worry and trauma is and I have been struggling to stay on top of everything - I have only visited mum twice, but I hope now she is closer to see her every day.  My brothers have been brilliant - one visiting her every day and the other dropping everything when need be and being there as often as possible.  Things like this bring families closer together, I guess.

Dad has been beside Mum every step of the way and is now reaching the point of exhaustion, so I hope being at home now will mean he gets more rest and recovery time too. 

Somehow you never really accept that one day you will lose your parents - they seem immortal and super somehow - but I very nearly did and I am very thankful to still be able to hug mum and tell her I love her.  I hope I will never get complacent about that again - life is precious and very fragile.