Busy day

Got to prep about 1/2 the food for the party, plus other stuff.

Finally

Planted my garlic yesterday. I've planted 16 - 20 cloves and we are going to try and get them to grow a bit bigger than last year. The plan of attack is to fertilise regularly (with our worm wee) and water regularly too.

Birthday party plans

While in the middle of my party planning season, I've decided to publish the party plans for all the kids parties I've done. When researching my party themes I get lots of ideas/inspiration from the internet and this year I noticed that a number of my ideas have come from blog posts where people have blogged about their party plans. So I thought that me blogging/publishing my plans, might help others out there. Now I know the level I go to with my parties is more creative and involved than a lot of people (I've blogged previously about why), but the way I'm going to organise the plans, you will be able to just take bits and pieces that you want to use. Where I can, I'll include the links/references for where I got the ideas from. I'm also going to include which age birthday I did each themed party for, but a lot of the ideas (decorations, food...) could be used many different ages.

Have you ever been shown up by you kids?

Yesterday's kids church lesson was about 'The 10 lepers'...for craft they made a cool paper bag mask with sticker dots all over it for the 'leprosy'. Ben decided yesterday that he was going to take it to school today for 'show and tell', as well as using it for as the inspiration for his story writing for today. He made the comment this morning that he was thinking about what he was going to write, so I took the opportunity to ask him what he was planning to write, here is what he said...

"Yesterday at kids church we had the story of the 10 lepers. Jesus made them well again. One came back and said "thankyou"."

I admire his clear, simple explanation and willingness to share his spiritual learning with both his teacher and his classmates. I'm thankful to God that he has the courage and belief in the truth of what the Bible says. Also his natural, easy way of talking about Jesus with those he sees each day, is a small reprimand to me...why don't I talk more about the things I teach at kids church, am learning in the Bible, my christian life/faith in general with the people I see each day/week. It doesn't need to be complicated, long, deeply theological, just simple and truthful.

I am looking forward to hearing how he went this afternoon/evening.

Can I do it?

I need to make a big batch of playdough for Joanna's party (it's on this Saturday)...but I don't think my arms can survive all that stirring after this morning's workout. I might have to leave that job for tomorrow.

Dead arms

Had a different Pump class instructor this morning - the usual one is on holidays. And my arms are dead. I have always thought the usual instructor was a bit wimpy with her workouts and this has confirmed it. I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth normally now. I'm thinking about emailing the gym. It isn't like I have a choice of instructors, Monday morning is the only pump class on the days I go (and the only other option is Thursday morning, when I have Bible study).

Earring curse

In the last 24hrs I have lost 2 earrings (and not from the same pair).

The first I lost while walking home from the supermarket yesterday - put my hand up to check it wasn't falling out and the sleeve of my jacket caught on it, pulling it out, I looked for it but couldn't find it (it was dark).

The second one fell down the drain hole of the basin at the gym this morning, when I was getting them out of the bag to put on (I put them in a snaplock bag so they don't get lost in my gym bag).

Very annoyed.

What I'm reading

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a book from my Playgroup's resource library - Mothers raising sons, written by Nigel Latta. Nigel Latta is the kiwi equivelant of Steve Biddulph. I've just finished reading it.

In the first half of the book he basically argues that a lot of common generalisations about boys that are supported by 'research' are either totally blown out of proportion or completely untrue (a couple of those generalisations about the differences between boys and girls are actually based on a study done on some beetles!). So he wades through a lot of the common things we here about boys and takes you through the research and what is fact and what is hype.

The second half of the book has more practical stuff about strategies for dealing with boys at different ages, school, etc.

What I really like about the book was the facts he gave about boys that just reminded me a lot of the stuff Ben does/how he behaves is normal 'boy' stuff. And that it is ok that it sometimes might feel annoying for me. It is also helpful to have this information to be able to make decisions on which battles are worth fighting and which are just differences of opinion. It also gave some general guidelines about navigating boys at different ages - not a tick box style 'do this, do that' but more general goals that look at the bigger picture of raising boys, so you don't get stuck in the nitty gritty details.

I'm looking at buying a copy of this book for myself now - I think it would be helpful to refer to, to remind me that my boy is a 'boy' and the commonalities we have are greater than the differences.

Kitchen improvements - stage 1

Completed!

The gas fitter came this morning to do the certification on the stove installation (which obviously required the installation of the range hood and splashback).

The next stage on the kitchen will probably be revamping the cabinets - adding shelves; replacing the catches; and painting the doors.

Just remembered that electrician still needs to come back tomorrow to finish putting the faceplate on our new oven switch - the part hadn't arrived the other day when he moved the switch)

Splashback up!

Our oven switch is moved...our splashback is up on the wall...the gas fitter is coming tomorrow morning to certify the oven installation.