Rockin and blogging

I'm back! We're at a new stage with baby Z - the "I need lots of cuddles" stage - which is a blessing and a curse.  At the moment I'm cuddling her off to sleep, which is really lovely, but also means that all the other things I should be doing (dishes, laundry, Kindermusik work) is not being done. So I'm blogging from my phone which I haven't tried before. I know I'm not the only mum being pulled in many directions by competing demands, but I hope I can still keep enough perspective to savour these precious times when a cuddle from me is all she wants. She's asleep now... Back to the dishes!

The Little Book Adventure

Oooh hello!  A quick post to tell you about The Little Book Adventure over My Little Bookcase - A series of monthly "challenges" for families and schools to celebrate the National Year of Reading.  The first challenge is to set up a child friendly way to display books in your house, so that they are easily accessible.  Here is the result of my first effort -

Ably assisted by my 11 month old.  Hmmm.  I think I am ready to buy a little tidy book carrier from Tidybooks.

Anyway, MLB is a great blog for people like me who love reading and sharing stories with their children.  Library nerds paradise, if you will.  It's lovingly curated by Jackie, and there are lots of reviews and giveaways of children's books and related things.  Another great book blog is Honeybee books another mum with lots of wonderful ideas about sharing books with children.  I love her lists, as a Kindermusik educator it's great to be able to recommend books to parents that compliment themes and concepts we explore in class.

Anyway to any random readers of this blog, I'd love to hear your suggestions for child friendly book storage for a nearly one year old that doesn't involve 10 minutes of tidying every time they "access" the books!  (Did I mention she tends to eat the books rather than read them?)

Being a better blogger

I just want to apologise for this blog. It is crap. I will try to do better. It's just that I write stuff and then I read it back and think "I am an idiot" because it's not Tim Winton so then don't post. I do have a life, really. I just don't share much of it here.

Hmmm. Items of interest.

Caught a great little busking act last Saturday outside Westfield Geelong - you can catch them here:



apologies for the sound quality.

And here are some recent photos:

Some of the prizewinning cakes at the Geelong Show.

What I've always wanted to do with my daughter's building blocks and finally did the other night when I should have been doing housework.

Annabel Langbein's Surprise Chocolate Cakes - they have pumpkin in them! Baking them in large tuna tins (with the tuna taken out of course!) is my most recent notable effort at upcycling.

And here, my latest favourite youtube video from OK Go:

Movember

I sponsored my cousin in law Travis to grow a chopper, and there was this widget which inspired me to go visit my badly neglected blog. So let's see if this works.

Tigger the incorrigible

This is our boy cat tigger. Though he is a fine specimen of a ginger Tabby, he has no respect for personal space - as demonstrated here with Kevin, who was sitting at the dinner table after a meal with his arms folded. Tigger jumped onto his lap, but was unsatisfied with such a low position, so climbed up on to Kevin's arms. What a brat. He is currently meowing outside the window because he wants us to come and watch him torment the mouse he just caught. Shut up, Tigger!

We are going to see the Dalai Lama tomorrow

Yes I am taking my Mum to see the Dalai Lama tomorrow for a White Tara Empowerment session. If I get time I will write about it afterward. Today we went for a hot chocolate empowerment session at the Chocolate Room. It will be interesting to see how the two compare - which is more empowering - how cynical of me!! Actually its the chocolate talking - I am an addict. Though apparently according to the Chocolate Room you can't get addicted to chocolate. Its just that the experience is so enjoyable, people want to do it again and again and again!

Not meant to publish submissions to parliamentary committees without permission! (whoops)

And that's why you'll no longer see my submission here. I could ask permission I suppose, when I get the time! If you want to read the submissions to the inquiry, go here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/haa/breastfeeding/subs.htm
There are some really interesting stories and points being made.