Finally handed in my assignment successfully. It's like my tutor never checks their email. My course is on Self-Sufficiency. It's one of six, when I have completed them all I will have a 'diploma' of sorts on Self-Sufficiency. Covering herbs, gardening, animal welfare, food production, mud bricks, building energy efficient houses, solar energy, permaculture, nutrition etc... A whole mixed bag of information which is going to help hubby and I on our dream of living self sufficiently. His horticulture certificates are really helping out, he is proving to be a great source of information. Even though we are a long way from owning our own property we are doing the best with what we have got. My parents own our rental so our veg garden has taken over our back yard and they allowed us to build a chook pen. Next we will install a water tank for the garden (once I have saved enough money from my jam making), which we should have installed before or during winter, but thats ok, as long as it is in before the end of the year. They weren't so keen on the idea of a solar hot water sysytem, but I don't blame them, they are paying off a mortgage and these days it's not like many people have spare cash after the payments and all the other bills. So we just take shorter showers and I do the dishes only twice a day. We cut back on the electricity bill by using the lights less, cutting back on the usage of the electric stove (I use my slow cooker as much as possible) turning off all the appliances at the wall... all the small things definately add up. In the first 60 days we knocked ten dollars of our bill. Now with summer approaching bbqs and longer, lighter days will help even more. Using the van less and walking places is getting easier, I either dodge the heavy rain or just walk through the light showers. But finally some sun has been showing it's face and the walking is getting a lot more enjoyable. Fuel is just ridculously expensive, and with my parents living out of town I don't see them as much as I used to, and we have to take hubbys daughter home after every weekend visit and that is a fifty km round trip in itself. So whatever little fuel I can save during the week by walking is an added bonus to our savings. Daniel has his daycare today. I hate sending him away but the 'docs' think it will help his speech and behaviour. He enjoys it once he gets over the tantrum he throws when I leave. He paints pink pictures and looks for bugs all day. Amber and I do research today. She chooses a subject once a month and she does a project on it. At the moment it is Australian Animals. So it is another visit to the library today and I think the museum as well. I thought that homeschooling her would take up all my time and I wouldn't have anything left for the boys but it has all worked out well. We have two hours of work together a day and then she does at least another two or three by herself. I sit the boys down with activities when I am helping her and they love 'learning' too. Although by the time I am finished with Amber they have already wandered off to find some cars or trains to play with. So all is good.

Finally got the garden under control this weekend. With the children outside with me all day it is a lot easier to get things done. And what a busy day it was on Sunday. Hubby had a heap of firewood that needed picking up from his work yard, cutting up and stacking. Free firewood, I guess thats a bonus for working on the roads, you can keep the wood you clear. Had to get a trailer of soil, our backyard is so sandy and after a couple of years of rain a bit of the soil is lost through the back fence and into the alley. So I had to build up our new pumpkin bed. Still have to mix in a heap of manure that hubby is picking up next weekend. The pumpkin bed is in the chicken run. Finally found out which chooks are laying, two of the bantams are all dried up so they will be getting a decent burial sometime soon. Just in time really. Amber keeps reminding me that she and Daniel get a chick each in Spring, it is Spring, just not Springy weather. So now I will have to fix up the old rabbit hutch for the arriving chicks. Planted zucchini and sunflower seedlings. We never have much luck with zucchini but it never really matters as my granny always plants way too many and we get all her leftovers. The sunflowers are for the children and me. I am going to collect the seeds and see if I can find an easy way of getting the husk off so that we can eat the kernels. I add sunflower seeds to most of my cooking. It would be good if we could grow our own. Although I am told that they are extremely hard to husk. I weeded all my garden beds, even found some beetroot and carrots between all the weeds. We have a let a turnip go to flower to see if we can collect the seed, and our broad beans should be producing in a week or two. I picked the latest caterpillars off the cabbages, broccoli, and caulifower leaves. Daniel really enjoyed that job. He keeps them in a little container until he gets bored of them and then feeds them to the chooks. If only the weather would cheer up. So after a rather busy weekend we have a busy week to follow. Amber has another week of swimming lessons. And sometime today we have to put up our tent for our backyard camping trip. So that I have tomorrow to make up the beds and the cats get used to it being out back. They love to attack the tent while you are sleeping, not a fun thing to experience at all. And what with the noisy neighbours and the shopping centre at our back fence getting deliveries at all hours I don't think we will be getting much sleep. But it's cheaper than going camping anywhere else. Food shopping today, playgroup tomorrow, hubby day off wednesday... fun, fun!

The new pool in our area is awesome! I hadn't been before yesterday. Amber really enjoyed her first lesson and the boys had fun in one of the new paddling pools. I am not too worried about taking them all along now. The way it is all set up is great. Everything is really open so I can paddle with the boys and watch Amber do her lesson at the same time. Daniel insisted on taking one of his pet snails along to the pool, so it must have looked a bit strange, me sitting beside the paddling pool holding a snail. All the children that walked past thought it was very interesting. I'm not too sure about the parents! Luckily I only have to pay for Amber to get into the rec centre, or it would have been a little pricey. Although it's good that the lessons are government run, they are way cheap. I think it works out to be about one dollar a lesson. The part has finally come in for our washing machine, so it will be getting fixed in the next day or two. I have really been missing the quick wash on my front loader. A normal load takes two hours! While the quick wash takes 45 minutes. I've felt like I have been doing washing every day of the week just to keep up with it all! But I usually have to do a load or two every day anyway.

Went camping on the long weekend. And the weather behaved itself. Only a few small showers, nothing to cause any dramas. Our 'camper-van' sleeps six comfortably, so we all had a warm bed and enough shelter with the annex set up. We camped right next to the beach, and even though there was no running water and only a 'drop' toilet, it was a great weekend. Waking up when the sun comes up and hearing the  waves hitting the beach and going to bed not long after dark, it was a great holiday, and affordable. We managed to cram our weekend with heaps of activities... beach play, paddling, swimming, fishing, kite-flying, walking, relaxing! Although my hayfever made an ugly appearance, I always get it a lot worse when I am pregnant and of course you can't take anything. And all my herbs were at home, so no natural remedies available. But it was ok, by the time we got home it had cleared up. Must of been the flowering 'peppi' trees that we camped under. This weekend was a trial run for our 'camper-van', just making sure I had remembered to pack everything in it. We are planning to go on longer trips in the future and had to make sure we hadn't forgotten to pack anything essential, how long the water tank under the van would last and how long a gas bottle could keep the fridge and stove running. We reckon we could go 4-5 days without restocking, and that isn't too bad. I did forget to pack a broom, even a dust pan and brush would have been handy. Sand just gets everywhere if you aren't too careful. But now it is all sorted, and once it is repacked with all the clean linen (and a dust pan and brush) it will be ready to go whenever we are. Maybe not any time soon, as we have a big holiday planned at the end of the year and getting ready for that will be the next item on the agenda. My 19 week scan went well. Amber couldn't keep still after ten minutes, so we pointed out the baby's bones to her so that she could name them (she is learning the skeleton at the moment). We were there for a little over an hour so she did really well. Bub is fine, all looks well and the due date is somewhere around the middle of Feb, I am sure I am due at the end of Feb while all the dates the doc and the scan have come up with are early Feb. Who knows. I am always a week or two late so who cares, as long as I have a bub by the end of Feb 2009 I will not be fussed. So I am 20 weeks this week and I can't believe that bub is aleady keeping me awake at night. The little bub loves to somersault all through the night. It's not huge movements, but it keeps me awake! And the little darling goes to sleep during the day! Boy, I can't wait till later when it starts to get a bit more cramped in there. Amber has her swimming lessons start today, she is really excited. I am not looking forward to it. 11.40am! Just when Jacob is ready for lunch and a nap. Hopefully I can keep him busy with the paddling pool, Daniel shouldn't be too much trouble, he likes to paddle but won't go any deeper than his knees. He got dumped by a wave at the beach right at the beginning of the year and has been a little wary of water since then. It will be good for Amber though. Her dad takes her to the beach nearly every time he has her, and she has told me many times of having to be 'rescued' by people coz she gets dumped by a wave and her dad is too busy with his new girlfriend or drinking with friends. So I will be a lot happier when she gets a bit more confident with her swimming. Then I will have one less nightmare when she is staying with her dad (now I just have to figure out how to rid myself of the other hundred or so nightmares!).