Library Time

Over the past few months we've been spending a lot of time at our local library. It is sadly an under utilised resource in our town, and what we've got I do like to try and support and make sure we don't lose it! I have been an intermittent visitor to the library since Muddy Organiser turned 1, but since the summer holidays we have been trying to visit on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

It's a lovely little library, with really friendly and welcoming staff, comfy chairs and comfy beanbags (from which I took most of my photos). The kids wander around looking through the books, they are allowed to borrow one book and one puzzle each. While the Muddy Puzzler is quick to make a choice the Muddy Pixie agonises over her choices, she is always the last one to make a decision, browsing through all the shelves and intently studying each puzzle before she makes that all important choice of which one will come home with us. The Muddy Organiser on the other hand is surprisingly fickle, she'll pick one say 'It's my favourite' keep walking around and quickly drop it in favour of another 'this is my favourite'. It's become a lovely little ritual for us to visit the library, spend some time with the books and even I can have a browse and pick up a new read every couple of visits.

The Muddy Kids love to come home from the library and tell Muddy Hubby all about the books they've borrowed and show him the toys or puzzle they've borrowed. They swap them around amongst themselves and make up stories to go with the pictures if we don't have time to read the book 20 times a day as they keep asking us to.

I am a BIG believer in reading to kids from an early age, doesn't matter what you're reading to them, as long as they're seeing and hearing you read. Muddy Hubby likes to read to the kids the nights he's home in time and is often reading them articles from the paper, although their favourite thing to do is spot photos of machinery in The Land. I have a real love of books and reading and am so pleased to see my kids are developing the same.

Muddy Organiser at 12 weeks being read the local paper

Wordless Wednesday - Loving the Sunsets

The sunsets at home have been nothing short of spectacular, hope yours are as good as these.

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday.

Time Together

Last week it rained and Muddy Hubby chose that day to head to the block up north we farm. We traversed sticky black mud roads in showering miserable weather, slipping and sliding around the roads. Then Muddy Hubby climbed the windmill to reconnect it, so he'll have some water to spray the weeds before we sow. All the while Muddy Bubby slept or happily checked weeds with us out the window.

Muddy Hubby and I used to do this a lot before we had kids, and even with the first two, after that, the kids just fought too much and it wasn't as much fun. It was so nice to spend time together (and with Muddy Bubby), just chatting away about this, that, weeds, farming, guessing how much rain we'd had, just being together. Something we don't get a lot of any more.

We've had enough rain at home to start sowing, not enough up north, so Muddy Hubby walked out the door yesterday and I think it'll be the last time we see him for more than a few minutes, for a few weeks (unless it rains again), as we go hell for leather to try and get our crop sown before the moisture dries up or it rains again. He's promised me he'll come home for lunch today, as we have some lovely friends coming to visit (the one exception he'll make), but he'll be straight back into work after lunch. The life of a farmer is never dull (unless we're talking weather).

Grateful for The Mobile

Once a fortnight I pack 3 of the 4 Muddy kids in the car and we head off to the local session of the Mobile. This is a service partially government funded that takes playgroup out to rural communities. They have 2 staff members that load up the Landcruiser with toys, tables and chairs, craft, books, music, whatever exciting game they've decided to throw in the truck. They drive up to 2 hours, set up and run a session in a community and then pack it all up again at the end and head back to the office to do it all over again the next day for a different community, sometimes even 2 sessions in a day if they're not travelling too far. They are taking early childhood services out to kids on stations and in small towns that have no other early childhood services

I am so grateful for a service that can entertain my 3 kids very happily for a couple of hours, giving me a chance to have a cuppa and a chat with other mums in the same situation as I am. A chance to just sit back while the kids have an absolute ball playing with other kids and exciting and different toys. We all come home exhausted and some weeks I'm even lucky enough for all 3 of the Muddy Kids to have an afternoon camp while I catch up on house jobs.

Yesterday I was feeling sick of my house and starting to feel very snappy with my kids so I was very excited to go to the Mobile and let the kids run off some energy while I recharged with a cuppa and a chat.

Linking up for the first time with *Maxabella Loves... for 52 Weeks of Grateful

Wordless Wednesday - Muddy Girl Trucking

Truckies in the Making?

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday.

Working with Hay

We've almost finished the hay work for now, getting ready to focus on sowing if it decides to rain (not looking great at the moment). The bales get loaded on the truck up the paddock and either carted into the hay stack and unloaded in lovely rows or they get carted to the hay shed and stacked in there, but it doesn't hold very many big round bales.



All loaded up from the paddock, waiting to be unloaded

 

Unloading in the hay stack (The Muddy Pixie has her own little spot in the tractor today, the Puzzler gets the afternoon shift)

All lined up in lovely rows (got to love order)

Before the bales could be stacked in the hay shed the hay shed had to be cleaned out, so we got a load of lovely mulch and a huge load of hay for my garden. Sunday we all worked together to spread it over the veggie patches and around the orchard. Somehow I think Muddy Hubby got the easy job!

The Muddy Puzzler loading up her cart

The Muddy Pixie with a full little wheelbarrow







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All lined up ready for a load (damn you blogger for making it so hard to arrange my pictures how I want them!)


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Muddy Bubby oversaw it all from his pram or the sandpit.

Painting - End in sight

Given I feel like I've been painting forever, when it's really only been 3 weeks in between baby sleeps and the daily demands of Muddy Hubby and the Muddy Tribe, I am now feeling like the end is almost in sight.

I've been thinking about how crap a painter I am (I really don't know how people do it as a job, I take my hat off to them) and I have some handy tips if you're thinking of embarking on any painting jobs any time soon, especially with kids around.

- Don't let Hubby seal the paint tin back up, it's likely he'll forget he said he'd do it and before you know it one of the kids will have tipped the tin over and you'll have even more paint to clean up.
- Best not to let him open it either, as he'll get such enthusiasm up for the job that he'll dent the lid and the rim, meaning you can't properly seal the tin back up and will have to do more painting in a small space of time to use up the tin before it hardens with a now unsealable lid.
- Have at least 2 or 3 rollers or brushes, chances are your first one won't have dried before Baby has their next sleep and you want to go painting again.
- If you're getting new carpet it's a perfect time to paint before the carpet goes in, you don't have to worry about drop sheets, and can even wipe your hands on the carpet in emergencies and you don't have to stress about it.
- As much as the kids would like to help - don't let them. Wall paint does not wash out of clothes and takes a few days to get out of hair.
- If you've asked Hubby to look after the kids while you get some quick trim painting done, make sure he understands what you mean, not 'yes I know where they are', otherwise you'll have kids running around your feet, bumping into freshly painted walls and trim and you'll have more paint to try and get off their clothes and out of their hair.
- Avoid the cheap paint hubby wants you to use up to get it our of the cupboard if you can. It's thin and takes about twice as many coats to look as good as the quality paint you would have bought, so you've wasted your time by having to do two extra coats.
- Do not pick a paint colour by solely looking at the Dulux colour charts on the website. You'll be disappointed and it won't look anything like you were hoping it would.
- Follow Shannon Lush's advice and use Clove Oil to get rid of bathroom mould, but be prepared for your house to smell for days and days like cloves.
- While Feature walls are nice, they're fiddly and mean more edging, more brushes and more tins of paint to clutter up your laundry and spill out onto the verandah.
- Think of the people who may move in after you and want to paint, light colours are easier to paint over, browns, blues, dark greens all suck to try and paint over, meaning you end up with either and undercoat or extra coats of paint til the colour you've chosen looks right.
- If you can afford it, get a professional in, you'll probably be happier with the result, less stressed and your hands and hair won't look like you've had a bad manicure and hair dye job.