Penguins

On the weekend we attended one of Jon's cousins engagement party. For the party, we made some penguins:

Aren't they cute?

Recipe here. We couldn't find pitted black olives, so we used kalamata olives for the bodies and grapes for the heads. We liked the combination of salty and sweet - yum! The filling was cream cheese, but can use a soft goat's cheese or a white dairy free dip (hummus etc) if dairy free. 

What other animals can you make like this?

Alma Park Zoo Visit

On Saturday we went to Alma Park Zoo.

Some of the animals:

Looking at the animals:

And our lunch-time close encounter:

Oblivious to the approaching danger...

This is what I see when I turn around...

This is where we decided to sit for the rest of lunch :) Abigail says, "Hello, bush turkey". And he hung around us the entire lunch time just like a bush turkey would have! His persistence paid off; he got some of Abigail's sandwich in the end!

It was a fascinating time; Sarah was terrified by the baboons (they made sudden loud noises in their playing); the rest of us loved watching the young ones playing and then having the head honcho (a grumpy old fart with a wild hair-do!) bark at them when they got a bit rambunctious; off to the side a mother baboon was sitting with her little one, holding onto its tail like a leash to keep it from running off.

We were surprised to see a bear (a sun bear), sitting eating a coconut in the hot Queensland sun.

Abigail loved all the different farm animals - sheep and goats particularly.

I was surprised how big the camels were, and enjoyed looking at the tiny marmosets (such tiny heads!).

God has made so many fascinating creatures; it was neat to get to spend the morning getting to see so many of them up close. 

It's been a busy couple of weeks! Some of the happenings:

On the weekend, Jonathan picked this up for me:

It is our first piece of bedroom storage that isn't shelving. With Sarah now in the bottom bunk and the portacot packed away, I wanted some bedroom furniture - for storage, and to put some pretty things out on. Yes, I found this one on eBay :) Thank you, my hubby, for buying it for me and picking it up (took him nearly 2 hours return trip due to roadworks). I love it!

I got Jonathan a sushi kit for Christmas. He then came across a nifty device that could make sushi-making easy and neat, so I got that for him for his birthday. Last weekend he made us lots of yummy sushi - doesn't it look good!? Any recommendations for fillings/flavourings?

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen processing tomatoes, mangoes and passionfruit I got cheap at the fruit and vege shop this week. I made tomato sauce and cooked tomatoes and jarred them - the first time for me. Some of the seals didn't take so I had to redo them (a lot of work - cooking, sterilising, and setting; I've put the rest of the tomatoes in a bucket to ferment for a fermented tomato sauce recipe I want to try. If it doesn't work, at least it only costs me 50c/kg!). I froze the passionfruit, and some of the mango - the girls and I have been enjoying mango parsley/kale smoothies. Abigail and I sat on the floor in the lounge to eat ours yesterday (it has an instant pudding consistency so we used spoons) and Sarah went back and forth between us getting spoonfuls from us both. Very cute :) Glad to see my girls enjoying green smoothies - fantastic way to get raw leafy greens in them. The parsley and kale are from our garden.

I am currently reading my way through the Little House series (just finished The Long Winter). I am loving it - their hard work and productiveness has been very inspiring (hence the couple of busy weeks!). Highly recommend these books - teach such good values. Looking forward to reading them to our girls when they're a bit older.

The week started out wet. Sarah would often stand at the back door looking out at the rain and banging to go out. The sounds of pleasure she made when I opened the door for her were adorable. Abigail has been wearing her new (second-hand $3) gumboots as much as possible - they're very good for jumping in puddles! She consistently puts them on the wrong feet :) And even with the rain, we have continued to go swimming. Abigail gets about with just a swimming noodle now, and Sarah still loves to dive on in over and over again. Swimming is normally an afternoon event, but this morning we left the dishes on the bench (still there now) and went for a dip. Very thankful that there is a swimming pool in our complex - it is such a blessing.

There was a lot of out and abouting this week, and our home has suffered because of it (ie. it's a mess). I am reminded of a couple of verses from Titus:

"Then they (the older women) can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

God is so wise - He knows that I need to be home; for getting things done, focusing on my kids, and having a peaceful atmosphere. I will make this my endeavour for next week!

Jonathan's Birthday

He requested corned beef for dinner (thanks for being a good sport about all the meat-less dinners I like to cook, darling!) (Jonathan tends to comment on meat being in a meal now, rather than there not being meat in it! :) :) )

I made choc peanut butter pie (gluten, dairy, and refined sugar free) for the cake; I made sure we got birthday magnums as a back-up option for him (glad I did; it was a very healthy tasting cake - not quite up his alley :) )

Time to dig in obviously :) Sarah was already in bed by this time, hence her absence.

And I enjoyed a nice slice of birthday cake for breakfast (well, it is a healthy one, after all!)

x

A Date and Flowers

This morning Jonathan took me (us) out on a date! So we all got dressed up and headed to Arndale, planning to get smoothies from the new cafe there (they even do green smoothies!). But being Sunday, they were shut, so we wandered up to the Coffee Club instead and ended up having brunch. Probably not something blog-worthy, but this being something we don't generally do, it was special! 

 Abigail tasting some raw sugar, while Sarah polishes off her second cup of mango smoothie.

Jon eating his Big Breakfast; well, he ate what wasn't pinched by his three girls :) 

Said pinching in action :) I ordered a slice of orange almond loaf (and Jon bought me a piece of caramel slice to eat at home). Yum!

Love my hubby; loved our treat.

And thank you Jachin and Alisi for the flowers you 'sent'. Love you two.

Bunks and pretty aprons

(The girls modelling some of their new clothes from Christmas)

I have been doing a concentrated stint of home organisation post-Christmas. My craft cupboard, ta da!:

Still working on a solution for keeping the toys (as) tidy (as possible); and then need to face my desk. Let's just say it doesn't look like it did in one of my blogs a while back.

With organising has come rearranging. Jonathan put the bunks together this week for the girls and now they are together in the one room again:

(Excuse the post-rearranging mess; and spot Sarah!)

And we're thinking to move my (messy) desk upstairs and bring the keyboard down - that way I might actually sit and play again. It has been far too long since I played music!

Abigail and Sarah got the cutest little aprons for Christmas (thanks mum!); now Abigail doesn't have to pinch mine! I bought mine before Christmas - and plan to make some myself; so pretty!

A friend did her meal plan for the year(!) recently, and that inspired me to do a month's plan (normally I do it a week at a time). I've cooked and frozen extra meals for the days when cooking doesn't happen (for whatever reason). I've loosely assigned Monday as our curry day, Tuesday for chilli, and the weekend has a soup and toast day; leftovers once a week; a potato meal once a week; and trying to sprinkle some pasta in for variety (we eat a lot of brown rice in our house). Jon got a sushi kit and a pizza stone for Christmas, so those dishes are now on the menu too (he might even make them!).

Speaking of dinners, I better go get tonight's assembled to pop in the oven! Love to all. My family, looking forward to seeing you next month. Sydney gang, seriously looking into a road trip your way sometime after then. Miss you all. xx