KNOWLEDGE

Back to school 2011. Two returning to primary school, one returning to pre-school and one very sad to see her summertime playmates heading back to 'work'.

GRATITUDE

This little ladybug needed a trip to the emergency department on Saturday after cutting a deep gash in her eyebrow.

She was simply getting off the couch and tumbled forward hitting her head right on the corner of the coffee table. Such an unadventurous way for such an adventurous girl to hurt herself badly enough to need stitches. She could easily have been hurtling around on the scooter keeping up with the bigger kids on their bikes, playing poison ball on the trampoline, jumping into a swimming pool, wrestling with J, screaming down the slide at the park or climbing up the ladder on the cubby house with an armful of soft toys. She does things every day that leave me with my heart in my mouth but it was just getting off the couch that did it.

I am so thankful that she didn't hit her eye, thankful that my mum lives just around the corner and was able to look after the older 3 for me while I took JW to the hospital and very thankful that we have an excellent hospital just a few minutes away. They took wonderful care of her and she delighted them all by declaring that she would be very brave.

I'm not particularly looking forward to taking her back tomorrow to get the stitches removed. I might be drawing a little more deeply from the universal pool of mama energy to get me through that. And then, with luck, the next time I am at that hospital I will be walking out with a new baby in my arms!

PATIENCE

My two works in progress. I am pretty pleased with how they are both coming along. And now that I've uploaded the photos I've noticed that a little touch of red can really make something pop.

I hope you find a little 'pop' in your day too!

JOY

Mr Duyvken (up there on the left) has gone to Adelaide to watch the Tour Down Under and sent me this photo earlier today. I think he's having a good time, don't you?

LOVE

Names from the Family Tree

Several years ago one of Mr Duyvken's cousins started building a family tree online. I get emails every couple of days telling me who is celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I never payed much attention to them until we started hunting for baby names and now I see it as a little pot of inbox gold. Here are a few gems from today's email - Ferdinand, Silver, Boudewijn, Aleida, Roy, Florence and my personal favourite, Alistair Honeybun. Alistair Honeybun is the winner, don't you think?
I'm a little over 34 weeks now and really need to start getting ready for welcoming this little one home. First step, getting the bassinet and capsule out of the shed and freshening them up. I really need to do that this week. I figure if I get a couple of things done each week I'll be all done before the baby arrives. A little self-delusion never hurt, right?
Now to fight humidity-induced lethargy and actually start getting things done!

Quilts for Queensland

I've spent a lot of the past week watching the images of the flooding in Queensland, hearing stories of loss and survival and thinking about the immense cleanup task that lies ahead. A wall of water can be devastatingly damaging in a very short period of time. It's difficult to imagine. There are lots of things happening to help those who have been affected and one of them in Quilts for Queensland.

Mr Duyvken took the kids out with him today and I had a few uninterrupted hours to myself so I pulled out my quilting stuff and sewed my way through 2 episodes of Midsomer Murders. Think you've met someone daggier than me? Ahem, I doubt it!
I have had this little quilt top for about 18mths ever since I started working on inventory for a market at the school. I fell pregnant and ended up pulling out of that market and have worked my way through all the things I'd made except for this little top that never became anything. I selected the charm pack thinking that the country colours would appeal to someone but they're not my style at all so I could never be bothered to finish it. Knowing that sandwiching, quilting and binding it were all that needed to be done to make it a contribution to the quilt appeal was all the motivation I needed to finally get it done. It feels so good to have it finished and it will shortly find a new home in south-east Queensland.
Click on the Quilts for Queensland button for more information if you want to help too.

Meme from Jen

Jen tagged me to share some highlights with you, so here they are, ten lights that have brightened my day today.

1. A sweet gift from Mr Duyvken, he knows me well, and looking forward to spending tonight labelling every jar in the spice cupboard. No more guessing what spice is in the jar by sniffing the contents, holding it up against other similar coloured spices and peering intently at the faded texta on the peeling pickle label trying to decipher what is written there.

2. Buying a few newborn baby things and hedging my bets.

3. Not wasting a skerrick of orange at breakfast.

4. Spending a lot of time sitting on this chair (and then trying to haul myself back to up) chatting with JW as she's on the potty. Potty training is not my favourite parenting activity but she's nearly there!!

5. Those curls, and shirts with ruffled sleeves.

6. Little treasures from our trip to Borneo. 7. Novels being written.

8. Finally seeing sunshine after days of dark, wet weather.

9. Having fairies in the house.

10. Readers who leave comments so take a moment to say hi.

It was nice to have this little project on the go today as we have been watching the flood situation unfold in Queensland and feeling so sad for the people who have lost their lives, the others who are still missing, all the people who have lost homes and all the others who are waiting in disaster relief centres waiting for the rivers to peak. There are lots of opportunities to help, including this

and the Queensland government is taking direct donations here. We're hoping that the dry, clear weather that we've had today heads north and that tomorrow brings only good news.

Super Sounds

Don't kettle drums make you happy?

Heartburn

Pregnancy holds many unexpected delights for the unitiated. I've walked this path many times before and this bit never gets any easier.
A photo response to this lovely post over at 47.

Christmas Gifting

Each year I buy a new ornament for the tree as a way of slowly but surely increasing the weight it's branches must hold and, equally slowly, creating a treasure chest of memories that we can dig through each year as we decorate the tree. Often these are cheap but cheerful ornaments from Bed Bath 'n Table or DJ's but this year I couldn't resist this beautiful pewter dove (!) from etsy seller Beehive Kitchenware. It is just beautiful and came so beautifully packaged I kept the box to store it in. I hadn't been searching for ornaments but while looking for a gift for my sister-in-law I found it. Serendipity etsy style!
I gave a beautiful coffee scoop for my sister-in-law to use in her new kitchen and a lovely bracelet for my sister as well as some very sweet diy ornaments that we never did get around to colouring in. There's always next year! One of the Craft Room girls, Chantal helped to create it and her work is beautiful.
Some of the other winning gifts that the kids got were beautiful necklaces from Seed, and J was given an awesome pair of boardies (also from Seed) that are made using the Michael Miller guitar fabric. Adorable! All this Seed goodness from the cousins led me to discover that they have a women's line as well which might be a problem for Mr Duyvken once this baby arrives :-) Mr Duyvken and the kids gave me a Gary Fong lightsphere. Insanely expensive when you consider the manufacturing cost but it produces a beautifully diffused flash and I am having a BALL taking photos of the kids even when the days are dull and the overhead lights are dim. I bought myself a Lantern Guide for our camera just before Christmas because although I keep planning on doing a DSLR course I keep postponing it based on cost. This guide and my groovy new tools should help me make the most of my camera (and skillz :-0) in 2011 even without taking a class. I'd love to improve the quality of the photos I take.
So Christmas was a big success but there was one epic fail. Have you ordered from Fishpond? I ordered some lego from them on Nov 24th for J's birthday. The items weren't listed as out of stock but were listed as shipping within 4-7 days. Given that it was still 3 weeks until his birthday I figured that would be fine and placed the order. I didn't think any more of it until about 10 days has passed and then when I checked the website I discovered that there was a note on my account saying that "We estimate this order for LEGO - will arrive at the Fishpond.com.au warehouse between 04/12/10 and 12/12/10". There'd been no email and no indication when I placed the order that the lego wouldn't be posted to me much quicker than that. I figured that even if the lego only shipped on the 13th of Dec it would arrive in time for his birthday on the 17th so I, foolishly, didn't think any more about it. It didn't arrive in time for his birthday but I figured Christmas wasn't far away and, surely, it would arrive by then but, despite a note being made on my account stating that it finally shipped on the 22nd of December it only arrived today. And, just to rub in a little salt the box was completely damaged. Luckily, it was only for J because it was not in the kind of condition I would be happy to give it to someone else in. I have ordered from them before a few times but it was only once I made it through the current debacle that I remembered that a triathlon training diary I ordered as a gift last Christmas also arrived after Christmas. The poor sister-in-law for whom I was kris kringle, and who was having a tough Christmas already, only got some rocky road and an IOU. Anyway, lesson learned, fishpond.com.au's communication is pretty hopeless (how hard is it to send an email?) and I won't be ordering from them again. So, that's my cautionary tale!