In the mailbox this morning

... 2 HUGE toy sale catalogues.
SP's birthday and Christmas to buy for.
How much is too much? How much is too little?
How do I choose?

Decisions, decisions...

Norwex love

I am a newly converted Norwex nut. Ridiculously, almost embarrassingly so. But I am not embarrassed, because I love Norwex. It makes it easy to keep my house clean.  

Thanks to last night’s Norwex party, I will soon have the following Norwex products in my house:

Kitchen: 

• Green kitchen cloth – washing up and benches
• Beige kitchen cloth – SP’s face and hands
• Yellow kitchen cloth – spot-cleaning floor

I already have these three. They’ve converted me.

• Green tea towel – drying dishes
• Suede microtowel –drying hands

General cleaning:

• Aqua envirocloth – cleaning pretty much any surface
• Pink glass cloth – glass
• Car wash mitt – flyscreens and car
• Micro hand pad – getting marks off walls etc
• Optic cloth – glasses, camera lenses etc

Bathroom: 

• Antibac body cloths (pack of 3)


• my face
• SP in the bath
• Spare (would Dave use one?)
• Body wash mit -  in the shower

Out & About:

• Envirocloth Travel pack (4)
• Car
• Nappy bag
• Work bag
• Downstairs for cleaning off the backyard muck before we come inside

Ideally, one more lovely friend would agree to host a Norwex party and I could get a free mop to add to my collection. Anybody? See all the stuff I got for hosting?

I’ll let you know if it all lives up to my (obviously quite high) expectations. Stay tuned.

Norwex Party

I hosted a Norwex party last night. In preparation, I'd been praying that I wouldn't get hung up on all the hostess rewards I could get.

God answered my prayer by denying me the reward I really wanted.

Fair enough.

 

Celebrating our 59th post

I know, weird number to celebrate. But I'd been planning to celebrate at 50 and just realised I missed it.


It'll soon be our blog's first birthday. Which means it'll soon be our son's first birthday! Yikes!!

Nappy cover pics

My first cover has now been completed, waterproofed and tested. I'm very happy with the results - a nice wet nappy & nice dry pants! And such a snuggly wooly boy to cuddle.

I've got the body of the second cover knitted up; now to finish the i-cord and add the cuffs. The wool is a funky purple-plum mix - I'm a bit sorry it's designed to be covered by clothing :)

I figure 5 covers is a good stash. I wonder if I'll get bored with knitting before then?

Show photos

A fun weekend

Saturday morning: I baked brownies for our church's coffee shop stall at the EJ fete. Lots of brownies. Dave & SP had a trip to Toyworld and Spotlight, where SP got a helium balloon.

Show photo

Saturday afternoon: Dave helped his lovely sister buy a car, and SP & I checked out the Pregnancy, Babies & Children's Expo at the convention centre. I think it's worth making it an annual event just for the animal farm.

Show photos

Saturday night: Date night. Usually we go out one week then stay in & read a book together the next week. But we both have croaky voices at the moment so we watched a taped Masterchef Masterclass instead. Now I want to make bread.

Sunday morning: Church. I was playing the piano & had fun incorporating some tips from Twist. Then we all headed down to the fete for morning tea.


Sunday afternoon: Chilled out at Mum's while Dave did his shift at the fete. I mostly listened to Mum & SP playing while I knitted. Lovely :)


Sunday night: Now that my work has switched to Mondays (from Thursdays), a relaxed do-nothing Sunday evening leads to an unnecessarily frantic Monday morning. Last night I was pleased to discover that half an hour is plenty to do all the 'getting ready for the week' bits & pieces that make such a difference.

Into the week we go...

Finished - sort of

Nappy cover #1 is in use! I still want to put cuffs around the legs but I need a shorter circular needle for that & I'm stuck in with a sick baby and no car today.

I was going to post a photo but SP celebrated the occasion by doing a mammoth, leaky poo which dirtied said cover. Another time.

 

Our not-so-perfect life

It's occurred to me lately that life according to this blog probably sounds really good and easy and straightforward. Particularly after posts like this.

Rest assured, you're not alone*. Most days aren't like that. If I remember rightly, me hitting the 'post' button on that particular post and SP waking from his 20 minute nap were simultaneous, and while I don't remember exactly what I did for the rest of the day, I'm pretty sure I didn't do any knitting.

There are plenty of days when the house is a mess, the washing piles up, SP seems to spend the whole day either attached to my leg or getting into things he shouldn't, dinner is scrambled eggs or freezer leftovers AGAIN, and Dave's return home is marked by a cry of 'Yay, Daddy's come to rescue us!' But on those days, the last thing I feel like doing is blogging, even if I could find the time and brainspace to do so.

Life is messy, complicated and exhausting. I'm lazy, I'm selfish, I'm annoying. I let people down, I hurt them, I disappoint them and I take them for granted, especially those I love most. This is real life in a sinful world.

Next time I look like I've got it all together, please stop me. I need help to let down my mask of perfection and show the real me.

* Hat-tip to Simone

 

Knitting Update

My nappy cover is coming along beautifully! I've learned to use circular needles, to do a 2x2 rib, to make eyelet holes, to use a stitch holder and to decrease for shaping. There are lots of mistakes in my knitting, especially in the ribbing, but I'm immensely proud of what I've achieved so far.

Next steps: finish my decreasing, weave in the stitches from the stitch holder (no idea how to do this - I'm hoping youtube will be helpful), knit an i-cord to tie through the eyelets, and maybe do some cuffs.

I'm getting a real buzz from all this craftiness, but I suspect my housework is suffering. Hmm, how to find a balance... Any ideas?

 

A good start to the day

It's 9:05am. The baby is asleep, the house is tidy, the sun is drying the washing and I've sent the emails I forgot yesterday.

I foresee lots of knitting today :)

 

Getting the message across

Situation: Bible study this morning. There were things in the passage (1 Samuel 15-19) that I needed to hear.

Problem: I’ve been pretty disengaged from bible study this term:

• we’re not in a part of the bible that I know really well
• I haven’t often been in church to hear the sermons, and haven’t made the effort to read or listen to them later. 
• I haven’t been reading the passages in my own time or making any real effort to process them after bible study 

… all of which means that, while I have some understanding of the bare bones plot, because I’ve still been turning up each week, I’ve been taking very little away in terms of broader themes and application. 

God’s Solution: My turn to lead the group this week! Which meant...

• I had to read the passage beforehand 
• when I got confused with the plot and characters, I couldn’t just zone out 
• when I felt young and inexperienced, ill-equipped to deal with the deeper themes on the same level as others in the group, I had to keep grappling 

Outcome: I learnt that:

• sin makes life messy. I’m been feeling annoyed with the after-effects of sin in my own family, but I need to accept the situation, trust that God knows the way forward even when I don’t, and work on loving people anyway. 
• sin is serious. I need to stop ignoring, stop making excuses and fight temptation. 

As it turned out, I did a shocking job of leading the study (and no, I’m not looking for warm fuzzies from those who were there), but I suspect I learnt a lot more than I would have otherwise.

God is good.