Cassie's Cuddles

Yay, Steph has finally finished her schooling. After years of homeschooling and the last two years of nearly regular school, she has finished.  Stephanie has been such a good student, doing all her work without prompting, but Yet not stressing, because she gets the bigger picture.  The thing I am most greatful is the fact that she has loves the Lord, and is a lovely young lady. Only recently she said to me, that she is most greatful for the things that Jared and I have taught her, especially regarding the Bible. When she said this, it bought tears to my eyes, what more could I want? I have a greatful, sweet girl, who walks in the truth.We met Stephanie at the end of her final exam with some balloons. She likes pigs so the kiddies choose them for her. She had to have her exams at Bayswater secondary college. We went out for tea at night to celebrate. We gave her a Bible that she has been wanting.Although it was a lovely meal, I was more interested in the two fish eating a dead fish in the fish tank right next to me. One little black fish was amazingly cute, but yet vicious..Speaking of fish, our neighbour across the road gave us a huge snapper for dinner. I have never cooked fish so fresh before, it was creepy having the eyes still on it!Ain’t it big? 

Friday we drove down to Moe, Lachlan was with us, but Jared was at work. We spent the day walking around, visiting our once regular spots.  We went to some op shops, found heaps of Trixie Belden books for 20c each and beanie bears for 50c each. We bought 19 of them, half we will be giving away to a little girl who has just started to collect them.andSat. we all went and did some gardening. Our garden is out of control right now.  It will take me weeks to get it tidy. The pool needs a bit of work too, ugh! In the afternoon we went to Ikea with the younger two children. The bonus was that outside, Anaconda was giving free Kayak demos. Both Camden and Cassandra got to ride? one for free, oh yeah! Bonus.andToday we went to Church, then waited for Jared to preach in the next one, joined him for a fellowship lunch, and then waited again for Jared to have a meeting. Once home the kiddies jumped into a cleaner pool, freezing…brrr.

School has started again, so we are back to basics, and I am glad of it. Who would think that such a routine would be enjoyable. Holidays are great, but I find that housework and the like are left to fend for themselves (which obviously they don’t). I had Lachlan home, so I got him to tutor Alycia, bonus! Camden and Steph got to work on their own, and Cassandra stuck with me. As a bonus today, we made some homemade icecream. I found a recipe in a library book by Annabel Karmel. I love her children’s cook books, they are sweet and pretty. Here is the recipe.It was nom nom nom…Cassandra was very proud of herself. She got to use the mixer (hand held) by herself. It was so funny to see the cream flying all over the place.Whip, stir, mix…Then eat 😀

Have you seen these cans? My children bought one home from the reject shop for me after seeing one of their friends with them. It is an instant hot chocolate. You push a button, then shake it, and then it heats up. This might be handy to have when I wait in the car on a cold night…oh yeah!I was collecting the library books last night, and only just discovered that I had borrowed two copies of the same book!! How lame am I? SERIOUSLY!! Should I admit that I actually bought the book this week too? Do you like my bruise? I don’t know what caused it. I got it the first time I rode my bike, a week later with the next ride it got bigger. That can’t be good right? Oh well, we will see what happens next week. For two weeks in a row I have had a white van toot at me and yell stuff (thankfully I am deaf, so I can’t hear them bagging me), I hope that I don’t see them next Saturday. Maybe I will think of them as my groupies. I can get away with that can’t I?

Wow, another month gone? Phew! What have I been up too? Well, I’m still being a good girl ;D. I have lost 16 kilos now, I am pretty happy with that, but I know I have such a long way to go. If you are a chubs, let me give you some advice..”start today, don’t leave it until you can’t fit through doors without going sideways”. It really isn’t so hard, at least not at this stage. I have discovered yummy hot chocolates (thanks to Jared). Jared has decided to check out all the hot chocolate places in Melb!! He asked me to join him, how could I say no? They are so yummy ( and yet, I have to include 300 calories) to make sure I don’t go over my limit. I actually took the kiddies to “indulge” while Jared was at work, I sent him a text…nom nom nom..I have also been getting ready for the next Dayspring Day. I have decided to do a “Masters Chef” day. I will making 100 chef hats. I have nearly made 20.How do you think it looks?Stephanie received her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award last week. The funny thing was that Lachlan came home with one too! He got one without realising just by doing his Army Cadets at school. Stephanie on the other hand, had to volunteer at the local library for 3 months, run up and down the 1000 steps every week, go on two big hikes, and practice her violin for 6 months…Congrats Stephanie (and Lachlan).Meanwhile Camden has tried to be a Zombie..don’t ask.He tried to eat my brains..He went away hungry, lol.The girls and I have done a bit of Naan cooking. So yummy. We found this super easy recipe here:http://titlisbusykitchen.com/archives/naan-without-ovenCassandra lost her first tooth this week. I gave her $5. All of the kiddies have recieved $5 for the first tooth, and then it goes down to 50c per tooth after that. I have done a bit of op shopping and have found a few cute bags…And..Stephanie has been doing more driving, as you can see from this pic she is driving in the van behind me (we were coming home from Church in two cars).Stephanie has also been crocheting for a friend. Her friend loves Dr who, so here he is with a darlek.I bought Alycia a pattern of her choice yesterday to start work on. A hedgehog! Alycia loves hedgehogs. It wasn’t a cheap pattern, but once she can make one, she can make many. I love the fact that my children want to create.We traced the pattern and cut out the material this morning. We were blessed during the month by a 4 year old. He knocked on our door and said ” I want to share my cupcakes with you”. How sweet is that? I really love seeing little children directed to think of others. Thank you to his mummy Narelle for making and sharing such cute cupcakes.My friends and I have been able to be part  of wonderful idea. A place near me asked people to donate new baby things for single mums. Normally young girls who find themselves pregnant with no one to turn to. This group provides a wonderful alternative to abortion. I thank God for them. Check this out if you want to know more.http://www.facebook.com/thebabesproject

On a less serious note, I will leave you with a picture of my physco collection.

Can you believe it, two weeks of holidays nearly over?  How can two weeks go so fast? What have I done? Of course we had Easter in the middle, so it was busy with Church on Good Friday and  and two church services on Sunday. We also had a friend and her daughter stay for one night. It was lovely to catch up. My friend gave us a very generous gift too, which was much appreciated. Thank you Sandy. I also had time to catch up with some other friends.The girls have done some crafts. This is what Alycia made for her American Girl doll, Josefina.We also went to the Resource Rescue centre to buy a heap of junk to make other bits of junk. If you are a local, you can find it here:http://discountcraftsupplies.com.au/ I have been getting to know my camera. I have been using the treadmill that Jared bought me about 2 years ago. I would rather walk outside, but it is very handy when you have half an hour to spare or it is raining outside. This treadmill was a bargain, it was less than $200 from Kmart.It is very wizz bang. It takes your pulse, tells you how many calories you have burn’t and has a cup holder for my nifty bottle 😀I made a couple of bunny bags. The pattern is from Melly and Me. You can find her site here:http://mellyandme.typepad.com/ I bought the pattern for $4.50 at a local craft store, Keith Fagg. The second one was a lot better than the first. Today I also made another Peg Bear.I also made a Melly and Me bee.Those wings were a killer to turn considering I had stuffed them with some wadding.I drove over to Sunbury the other night for the children to watch Courageous with some friends. It was a long drive. I got Stephanie to do the driving on her L’s. She did such a good job. I drove home though. They are a lovely group of teens, I was there the whole time with one of their mums, and it was a lovely time of fellowship.I found some good books in the opp shop. Another Church history book. An old Pilgrims Progress and some Latin books. I also found a Holly Hobby doll for $1.50. It is very worn, but still sweet.My three youngest took to cupcake making while I sewed upstairs. Jared was downstairs so if there was a fire, he would save the day ;D  They ended up taking some over for the neighbors, the ones who made our house catch fire. All is forgiven eh?This is Cassandra in a cool mask, I love the way the nose sticks out. This came out of a book of masks. It kept her very busy.

Today I went to my Great Uncle’s funeral, he was 89. My heart broke for his widow. I always think this is one of the worst things, to loose your dearest and best friend. They had been together for over 60 years, how do you carry on? I pray that God will give her comfort and strength to continue living with Joy.My dad is on the right, next to my sister then mum. My auntie and uncle are on the other side, I pretty much see them at weddings and funerals. Um, I must make a bit of an effort to see them on an average day….Yesterday I peeled and let soak most of these tomatoes. I made up about 6 Kg worth. When I got home, I had to cook them up. Tomatoe relish, yum! This is my mums recipe.

1.5KG  ripe tomatoes           2 Tbspoon of plain flour

500g onions                             1   1/2 TBspoon of mustard

1/2 cup of caster sugar        1 TBspoon of curry powder

1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes

Skin tomatoes by  making a cross on the top and bottom of the tomatoe, then boil them for 4 min, then immerse them in cold water. You can now easily peel off the skin. Add the chopped onion and tomatoe into a pot, and leave over night. Next day add just enough vinegar to cover tomatoe mixture and boil for 1 hr. Moisten dry ingredients with a little vinegar then add to tom. mixture, until it thickens. Now bottle it, and enjoy it. Remember to sterilize the jars 😀

I made up at least 12 jars, some are huge!Nom, nom nom.I decided to make my own soap on tap too. For one bar of soap, you use 4 cups of water ( I did double so I used two). You boil the water and then add the grated soap. I left it for a while and the whole pot went solid, so I added another 8 cups! I filled a lot of empty containers that I had kept for such a task as this.Look how much of it, I now have.I will now show you a picture of a giant fairy floss….The clothes are lovely, it’s the person inside them that’s the problem. I will address that problem tomorrow, stay tuned. Oh, and remember I have a giveaway here:https://cassiescuddles.hoodfamily.org.au/?p=3975 just leave a comment for your chance to win.

Stephanie has been back for nearly two weeks now, and she is very busy catching up with the weeks that she missed at school. She is doing year 12, I can’t believe that it is her final year of school. I home schooled Stephanie until she was in year 11, I am very happy with the way that she has applied herself to her studies, and has done so well thus far.Here is Alycia in my wedding dress. I can’t believe that she nearly fits into it. There is no way that I would fit into it now. Cassandra wanted to try on the veil.The veil was my mother’s. It is shorter now, because she cut some off to make a baby net (or something like that). Jared and I will have been married for 20 years this year. We had a few warm days in Melb. last week so I took the children to Lysterfield lake. I love taking the kiddies swimming for free. I really enjoy the atmosphere of the lake too, so much better than a local pool.Sunday week we had a little mishap. Camden was playing table tennis with some other boys when he smashed the light above the table, oops! Nothing better to humble parents eh?I made lots of yummy jam. Nom nom nom. I found a box with about 4 kg of strawberries for only $3.99, great! I made 12 jars in total.I  have been sorting through material too. I might do a giveaway tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Tuesday  night Steph arrived home from India. Her plane arrived at 8:40pm. I felt really excited waiting for her. A few of the parents hadn’t arrived by the time that the team where coming out, the kiddies looked disappointed. We were prepared with balloons and a lame hat 😀She finally walked out…It’s amazing to know that she has been to India and back. Of course she brought back some gifts for people. I told her not to bring back any trinkets, so i think that I actually stressed her out. She mainly bought back some bangles (glass ones) for her friends, a special box for her auntie, some ear muffs for her daddy and brothers. G’parents and supporters will get a little something too, just to say thank you. I love this picture, I can’t help but laugh. This is a small group of the team (one technically wasn’t part of the team, she came seperatly) in a rickshaw. Poor Joshua stuck in the side. I loved the fact that each group of girls had a boy to watch over them. He was to be the protector ( you have to love that eh?). All up, it sounds as though he did a great job, afterall they all came back, lol. Joshua’s mummy and daddy should be proud, all that training as the oldest sibling has paid off 😀 On the very last day they did some sightseeing. I would love to put some photos of the children that they went and and got to know, but I need to wait for permission.  Overall, it sounds as though they worked very hard, had their eyes opened, and also had the bonus of getting to know their team like family. Personally I feel as though I know Steph’s fellow travelers really well with all her talking over the last few days.This is a cool sight, I could see how far Stephanie had traveled on the way home. Awesome! I made up some washing liquid for the washing machine. I found the very simple recipe here:http://down—to—earth.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/have-you-tried-homemade-laundry-liquid.html All it takes is  1 Litre of water, I cup of Lux soap flakes, 1/2 cup of washing soda, and 1/2 cup of borax. Bring to boil, put into a 10 litre  bucket, and add water, mix well. Then funnel into your  clean bottles. Easy. I have done three loads so far, and it has worked well.  Rhonda has  just written a book too (which I have just ordered), so you might want to take a look at it.Alycia has done some painting.Another little experiment that I tried this week, is making an egg heart. I think I will need to try it again to make it perfect.this is my effort, mmm,,,try again..We have done a bit of cooking too. I love the fact that my local fruit shop, sometimes have a book of vegies for $3.As long as you use it up quickly, it’s a bargain.

We had a lovely baby shower. The ladies were very quiet, I felt like a hyped up toddler. Jared said that all he heard from up stair was me..opps.Do you like our decorations? We also made a baby from fruit salad. Sounds weird huh, but it looks cute don’t you think?I got the idea from Tip junkie. Straight after the baby shower we went to Clifton Hill for their carol  service. Sunday we went to Broadford Church, where Jared preached. I love Jared’s preaching. After Church we shared lunch with everyone, they do that every week. I love this idea, too bad more churches don’t do it, it’s great for fellowship. Cassandra discovered many fruit trees, so she started to collect them, and now we have some in a brown bag waiting to ripen.We went and watched Sleeping Beauty, a ballet, staring Ellie, our next door neighbour. Ellie is such a lovely dancer. We also went and bought me a bike, cool!! They didn’t have any in the Bayswater store of Anaconda, so I called the DFO at Sth Wharf and they did, so we went in and bought it. I was sooooooooo excited, it is my dream bike. Jared went in to put it into the car, but it didn’t fit, ugh! Jared said I should catch the train home with it, noooooo. That freaked me out, after all I wouldn’t get home until 9pm. I went back and begged them to send it to the Bayswater store, and they kindly offered to send a boxed one to Bayswater, so now I am waiting for my call. Here is a picture of Jared with my bike.We had a lovely walk around the city as well. Camden looks a little like a ballerina here. He jumps with grace 😀Of course we had to get slurpees.This why I don’t like going shopping with Jared. I love him, but boy does he rev the kiddies up. The whole time they are tripping each other over and punching  each other. Keeps life interesting huh?I made a few gingerbread men. I gave one to a friend last night when we went to their house for a carols night. It was a lovely night.Yesterday I made a skirt for Alycia and then a matching rose for a plain T-shirt. This is such a simple skirt. You are just sewing selvage to selvage, then you turn down the waist to make an elastic casing, then do the same with a smaller amount of fabric, and join it on, simple!! The rose was from a Tilda pattern book.I nearly forgot the cookies!!! I joined it on  a cookie swap. /We all made 6 dozen cookies of the same type, wrapped them up, and then went to someones house, and did a major swap. It was such a fun swap. People dressed up, we played some games, and then took 6 different lots of cookies home.Today we went to Broadford again today, then to Essendon for a carols service. We finished this evening by finding this visitor in our shower.I don’t like these visitors, in fact, I want them dead.

Yesterday I spent a bit of time looking for my bagel recipe only to find that the website has now closed, ugh! Why didn’t I write down my recipe? So I searched for another, and found a suitable one. They were so easy to make, I didn’t even have to wait for the dough to rise for an hour.They are very yummy.My second batch looked better, I had to make the holes bigger (but I didn’t take a photo of those), you have to take my word  that they tasted yummy. Oh, yeah, I also made some cookies, nom, nom, nom.

Apart from cooking, finishing off school for the year (we still have a few weeks to go), we are still applying for visas for STeph, thus the photo..Haha, this makes me laugh! Meanwhile, Alycia is going through a growth spurt. She is so lethargic, I remember Steph being like that at the same age. The weird thing is the skin around her eye is breaking down too, the exact thing happened to Steph. She wasn’t so out of it, that she couldn’t make a happy animal out of her apple though.Can you see all my vases? I gave them a little clean with some salt and water today, works a charm. I learn’t this trick from “How Clean is Your House”. I also cleaned my pantry again!! Don’t you love this picture? A lady in the Church that Jared sometimes preaches at gave it to us.This is my first ever cross stitch. I made it for Jared when I was about 19. It means Scripture (the Bible), Grace  and Faith alone. You can only find out who God is and what he requires of us by reading the Bible. You can only be saved by Grace (God saves us despite us, not because of any good thing we have done), and faith alone ( a free gift).

Today is the 7th of November, so what did we do? Well, Alycia was ill on Sat, so you guessed it, Lachlan was sick today. So he got a day off. I did school with Camden, Steph did her own school, and Alycia and Lachlan slept. In the afternoon when people were feeling a little bit brighter we went to 7-11 to get a free slurpee each. Everyone seemed to really enjoy them. Later in the afternoon I also found this recipe, so I whipped some up. It was so yummy. I gave some to everyone.I think that they liked it. You can find this recipe and others here:http://www.mhcmag.com/On the weekend we bought a trampoline from Aldi for Camden and Cassandra as an early Christmas present.I did a bit of sewing on the weekend. Do you like my mermaid?and some Tilda birds.They are friends.Look at my wall. I think we have a problem.Our house is sinking, ugh!

Look at my vintage girl. My sister gave her this top. I had a track suit like this as a child…..I didn’t like it. But, hey, it suits her. It will have to grow on me.Ok, so here is my psycho secret. I am collecting smurfs. Perhaps I have enough now? I saw this bag in the op shop which now houses them. A perfect match don’t you think?