Nothing to speak of

I'm 15 weeks and a few days pregnant. I am starting to feel familiar little flutters in my belly, and I'm loving it! It's so reassuring to get to this stage, and have a constant (well, not quite constant yet) reminder of the life growing inside you. Until this stage, it's all a bit up in the air and you just have to go along each day hoping that everything is still as it should be. It's hard sometimes, when you're feeling well, and looking after a busy toddler, to remember that you even are pregnant, especially when you're not showing yet.

And in that department, there's no belly to speak of! I had planned to start taking weekly belly photos from 12 or 13 weeks onwards, but there's really not much yet to take a picture of. I was expecting to show sooner this time, as they say you always show sooner second time around. But second time around I was a lot healthier than the first, and weighed less going in. I think that's been in my favour, and as yet, I have nothing but a tiny little bump. Having said that, I know it won't be too much longer before I see a bit more growth. I'm starting to get to that frustrating stage where all my regular clothes are starting to be a little tight around the middle, but I'm still way too small for all my maternity clothes. Besides the fact that my maternity clothes are all for winter! I need to come up with a solution for these next few warm in-between weeks. Which is going to be difficult because of the compact. What's the compact you ask? Stay tuned, tomorrow all will be revealed!

Banana Bread

In an effort to start making the vast majority of our food from scratch (more about that soon), and to use up some over-ripe bananas, I made some delicious banana bread yesterday. The original recipe can be found here.

Banana Loaf

1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 Tbsp ground flax seed, mixed with 2 Tbsp water
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp bicarb soda
3/4 cup wholemeal flour
3/4 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan dark chocolate chips (my addition)

"Cream" applesauce and brown sugar. Add flax mixture. Mash bananas and bicarb soda together, add to the other mixture. Mix remaining ingredients together (except choc chips). Stir dry ingredients into banana mixture until all ingredients are moistened. Fold in choc chips.

Pour mixture into a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan which has been sprayed with canola oil. Bake at 175ºC for about an hour until a skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Delicious warm from the oven with a smear of vegan margarine!

Learning to be content

Last year sometime, I wrote in my old blog about some extensions we wanted to do to our house, and how we realised after much dreaming that we couldn't actually afford to do them. I was upset at the time, that this dream wouldn't come to fruition, and Colleen cheered me with the following comment...

"I've heard that the smaller a home is, the closer the relationships between the people - so in some ways it could be a blessing?"

Fast forward to this year, and we have again been talking house extensions, though on a smaller scale than before. Once again, we decided we really couldn't afford it. Well, we could probably do it, if we went into more debt than we would be comfortable with. The bank would be happy to loan it to us, I'm sure, but we just don't want to be paying off this mortgage forever.

So we've started looking at our house for what it is. Can the four of us (and one day, maybe more) comfortably live in this 3 bedroom, 1 living area home? For the rest of our lives? Yes, the living space is small-ish, and the kids will have to share bedrooms if we don't stop after this baby. Guests have to walk through our laundry to get to the backyard and the whole space is not as "open-plan" as we would like. But you know what? We are content. Once we decided to stop desiring more, and to start looking at our space creatively, all of a sudden we are happy with this little house.

There's not a lot of space for the kids to play inside. So we are going to work on creating an outdoor space that can be used year-round, when inside feels too cramped. We'll probably also get rid of a bunch of toys, and find we have more space inside! The kitchen is still in it's original 70's style, with mission brown cupboards and bright orange bench tops. Ugly, yes, but functional all the same. The bedrooms are small, by current standards, but they all fit the "essentials" - a bed, and a cupboard to store clothes, with room for a few extras.

The bathroom is old, damp and smelly, and this is the one thing we plan to change in the very near future. Yes, we've lived with it for five years, and probably could live with it for five more. But that wouldn't be so great for our health. The old "Chinese lantern" pattern on all the tiles is great for growing mold. No matter how often we clean it, the whole room is just always damp and mucky. Yes, I know bathrooms get damp, but this is beyond normal. So this one thing, we will change, and soon.

Other than the bathroom, we are happy with things as they are for now. Eventually, we dream of a kitchen that's not mission brown and orange. Of a garage instead of a carport. But these things will come with time. By current standards in this country, our house is small, and most people in our situation would see this as "a first home". For the longest time we did too, and that's probably why we've never really made it feel like home. We always thought we would be moving on to bigger and better things, so why get too comfortable? But we have been blessed with so much! In fact, I'd go so far as to say we have an abundance. There are people in this world with families much larger than ours, living in spaces much smaller. Families where five children are crammed into one bedroom, and take turns at who gets to sleep on the mattress instead of the floor.

So whenever we visit friends with larger, "nicer" houses, and come home feeling like we want more, I will revisit this post, and these thoughts. Amazingly, we have discovered that just by deciding we'll be happy with the space we've got, we actually are. Contentment is an attitude adjustment, but it starts with a decision to just be happy with what you've got. We will never learn to be content if we are always looking at what everyone else has, and feeling sorry for ourselves that we can't "have it all" too. But when we actively decide to be happy with what we've got, it actually works.

I'll leave you with some wise thoughts from my favourite book...

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
- Philippians 4:11-13

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that."
- 1 Timothy 6:6-8

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"
- Hebrews 13:5

Hellos and goodbyes

Happenings in blogworld recently:

*red current is back - hooray!

*loobylu & Kiddley are taking a break, sad for us, but great for their family I'm sure.

*Over at Wish Jar Journal, Keri has been experimenting with "unbranding" familiar household products. I love them all, but the greenie in me really loves the dish soap skin, covered with facts about water pollution.

*Chelee has some great thoughts about debt over at Con$umer Di$obedience.
"I've really had to change my mindset. I think more like my great grandparents did. I don't shop without a plan. And I realize that normal is debt and I don't want to be normal, I want to be weird."

*This is an old one, but I recently found it in my favourites. A gorgeous quilt over at whip up.
"The Textile Worker by Terese Agnew: A quilt made entirely of garment labels collected from others made to protest the conditions of sweatshop workers."

*There's a group over at Flickr for Knee High Sock enthusiasts, like me. Though of course my personal favourites are stripey knee high socks.

The pitter patter of little feet

A familiar sound in our house over the last week has been "step, step, step, THUD". Peachfuzz has been exploring her world, and trying to figure out this walking thing. Sunday afternoon saw a huge development. Papa Bear was on the couch, with Peachfuzz playing nearby. I was in the kitchen. We were both absorbed in our own jobs, and didn't even notice that Peachfuzz had taken off, until I saw her fall, just a few steps away from the kitchen! I quickly lifted her to her feet and sent her back in Papa Bear's direction. She probably took about ten steps before falling over. We were so proud of her!

Since Sunday, she has improved drastically again. She will now attempt to walk places first, crawling only when she falls over. She still hasn't figured out how to stand up without pulling herself up on something, so if she's in the middle of the room when she falls, she'll crawl the rest of the way. But we're hearing a lot more "steps" and a lot less "thuds" now. I'm sure these next few days will be full of joyful discoveries (for her), and lack of childproofing discoveries (for me).

My little drama queen

Could this be the funniest photo of my daughter ever taken? This was Peachfuzz last night after her bath, when she discovered how to turn the light switch on and off. She'd flick the switch off(with a little help from me) and then pull this face. Flick it back on, same face again. What a crazy, dramatic, loveable little girl we've been blessed with!

Valentine's Day in a whole new light

This post was supposed to start with a cute photo of our Valentine's Day cards and cookies, but of course, I was rushing them out the door before I remembered to take a picture. So you'll just have to imagine.

Papa Bear and I have never really been big on Valentine's Day. Apart from wishing each other "Happy V Day" on the day, we don't do much at all. Maybe one year we swapped cards? But really, I think it's just another excuse for lots of businesses to make lots of money, and a day when single people end up feeling bad.

So this year I made a decree (yes I actually told Papa Bear I was making a decree), that from this Valentine's Day forward, our little family would celebrate together, the love between us all. Not just a day for "romantic" love, but a day to celebrate the love we have for our family and friends.

Peachfuzz did some beautiful colouring on white paper using pink and red textas, and I cut heart shapes out of it and stuck them to the front of cards for her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunties and uncles. I then popped her in the sling while we baked heart-shaped ginger cookies for everyone (vegan cookies, ssh, don't tell!). Baking was made more interesting by the fact that I dropped a glass canister full of flour onto the floor by my foot, slicing it open in a number of spots. So we had to take a break to mop up blood and bandage me up, but then we got back to the cookies.

Everyone loved their little homemade gifts, and apparently the cookies even taste good too. I think we might be on to something here.

In which I brag on my girl a bit

Excuse me while I have a mummy moment. I'd like to keep track of this kind of stuff somewhere, so here seems as logical a place as any. My little Peachfuzz, the amazing wonder child, is 16 months old. Here is a list of spoken words and signs she uses, as of today.

Words

baby (uses this to refer to all children, or when you ask where our baby is, she points to my tummy)

dad/daddan

cracker

mum/mama

nanna (for my mum)

nana (banana)

amem (amen - at the end of a prayer)

bib

pear

bre-bre (breakfast)

pop

happy

yummy

oh dear

uh-oh

wim/wimmy (swim/swimming)

no

car

beard (bread)

come on

hommu (hummus)

ucky (yucky)

humpy dumpy (humpty dumpty)

bear (uses this for all her soft toys)

umm (as in "what would you like for breakfast"... umm)

man (oh man - I guess I've said that too many times!)

more

memo (Nemo)

ball

beep (when she hears the washing machine/a car etc.)
meow
oof (woof, for dogs)
ooooo (moo, for cows)
quack

Signs

more

all done

milk

drink

nappy

food

banana

bath

book

wait

attempts please and thank you, but not quite there yet

The list of signs isn't as long as I'd like, but that's purely our fault, not hers. She can sign, or attempts to sign, everything we've taught her. We just need to learn some new ones ourselves!

A little carried away

So apparently this decluttering thing is quite addictive. Day one I chose 3 cookbooks I no longer had any use for. Day two I managed to let go of another nine items. And it just kind of snowballed from there. And so at the end of week one, instead of parting with 21 items, as I expected, the count is up to 206.

For my own records, here's a summary of what went this week:
8 cookbooks
1 invitation to a Hens Day
12 pairs of shoes
8 pairs of PJ's - and I still have an entire drawerful!
1 bookmark
47 items of clothing
29 playstation games
1 playstation
22 pieces of underwear
3 handbags
1 coin purse
2 belts
3 scarves - what does an Aussie need with 5 scarves? I'm only keeping two.
7 pairs of socks
8 small bottles of perfume
1 sample pack of Mary Kay cleanser & moisturiser
1 small bag of broken bits of jewellery
1 keyring
3 necklaces
3 bracelets
1 cuff
6 pairs of earrings
1 badge
19 hair accessories - ties, combs, clips etc.
15 make-up items - some more than 5 years old, yuck!
2 photo frames

These shoes

These shoes nearly ended the decluttering before it began. It was just after dinner last night that I realised I hadn't chosen my three items for the day. Being a new habit, I had completely forgotten about it, and then went into total panic mode. Three things. Three things! How on earth could I choose another three things. I had already done one earlier, an invitation that I was going to scrapbook, till I realised I had no photos of the event, so what was the point of keeping the invitation? But two more? Then my mind turned to my shoes.

I knew I had two pairs of shoes in my cupboard that could go. Remnants of my days in the corporate world, which I left almost four years ago. The first pair was easy. I haven't worn them since I left my job, and I was kind of kicking myself that it took me so long to get them out. But this pair, oh how I loved them! I marched out to the lounge, shoes in hand and said to Papa Bear "These are my other two things for today, two pairs of shoes. I really loved these shoes, but I don't wear them anymore. Maybe I'll just take a photo of me wearing them before I give them away." BIG mistake.

The minute those shoes went on my feet, I started rationalising why I couldn't part with them. They looked so stylish. I could still wear them to church occasionally. They make my legs look a little more defined. They are cute black shoes with a silver bit. How could I part with them? So back into the wardrobe they went, with Papa Bear shaking his head at me the whole time. As if to redeem myself, I came back waving four dresses and three shirts in his face, "this is the rest of today's stuff".

But this morning I decided that I had to do it. This is the beginning of the journey. I am overcoming sentimentality. When I put those shoes back on, I forgot all the reasons I was letting them go in the first place: I never wear them, they rub my feet and give me blisters, my feet fall out of them at the back because they're slightly too big. And of course, as Papa Bear pointed out, they don't fit with who I am anymore. I am not the young single girl working in the corporate world, trying to impress everyone with the way I dress. I'm the young wife and mother now, a little eccentric, a little "crunchy", and in all honesty, I prefer to go barefoot anyway.