Life As We Know It

366 photos: day 107- 113

 

Hello! Happy Monday!

 

Monday: On a particularly playful morning, Aoife asked for a picture of the three of us together. I, of course, jumped at the chance. With only minutes to spare before we had to leave for school we cuddled up on the sofa and snapped away.

 

Tuesday: Yay! The transfer worked! For once! My persistance paid off!

 

Wednesday: Do you see it? Do you see the heart? I love hearts and look out for them everywhere. When I can, I snap a picture. My hope is to create a photo book when I have enough.

 

Thursday: My poor deprived child complained about getting 3 cooked meals a day. She wanted sandwiches. So we had a packed lunch dinner.

 

Friday: When Kirby got this elephant for his birthday, Alan and I thought it was just another noisy battery operated toy. We were wrong! This rocking elephant has magical powers. He can calm a fidgety baby in seconds and turn a frown upside down. We love him!

 

Saturday: Muddy fun up at the rugby club (and this is the clean version!)

 

Sunday: I finally got to spend some time in the attic to sort and put away the clothes the kids have outgrown lately, and bring down some new ones. Now we just need to decide what comes next...

 

And that's the end of week 16!

This week looks to be as rainy as the last, so no doubt there will be plenty of reading, pottering, and indoor fun ahead.

 

366 photos: day 86-92

 

Late posting again! The push to get Aoife's room ready for her to move in by the end of the weekend was on. And we did it...just. Phew! Now I just have to make her some art and we're sorted.

On that note:

 

Monday: First coat on and I'm hyperventilating! It is so bright!

 

Tuesday: Rubbish photo, but lovely memory. Kirby wakes Aoife up for school every morning. If she takes to long to get up, he throws the school uniform at her!

 

Wednesday: I was thinking a lot about my late dad last week, so I made a Greek salad (his fave) in his honour.

 

Thursday: Trying out a low-carb pancake recipe using cream cheese, eggs and cinnamon. Yummy!

 

Friday: It's a shame this picture was taken on the phone because I absolutely love it. Aoife showing off her summer uniform.

 

Saturday: Alan putting together the Expedit for Aoife's room. So close now we can taste it!

 

Sunday: Palm Sunday.

 

And that's the end of week 13! Full bedroom reveal coming soon.

 

366 photos: day 79-85

 

Here's week 12 for you in all its everyday glory.

 

Monday: That boy's antics crack me up on a daily basis. Right now he has a thing about putting his daddy's shoes in the laundry basket and on the dryer!

 

Tuesday: Wonderful Cherry blossoms we see every day on our way to school. So nice! Spring has definitely sprung!

 

Wednesday: When I tell Kirby it's time to pick up Aoife from school he gives me the biggest smile, then crawls out to the porch as fast as his little legs can go, sits down on the step, and tries to put on his shoes (even though I rarely make him wear them).

 

Thursday: This flower magnet Aoife made in school during science week makes me smile every single time I go in the kitchen. It is so bright and cheerful. I love it!

 

Friday: Non-uniform/ silly sock day at school in aid of CAFOD. Aoife looked suitably silly in her Halloween tights.

 

Saturday: Honey I blew up the kid!

 

Sunday: A trip to IKEA to buy some new pieces of furniture for Aoife's room. Obviously, a meatball dinner was on the agenda too :)

 

Isn't it weird how things work out. One of the reasons I started this challenge was because I wanted to get better at my big camera, yet as the year goes on, more and more of my 366 pictures are taken on my phone!

 

366 photos: day 65-71

 

Hello my lovelies,

Hope you had a good week. I feel like I spent the whole week keeping Kirby out of harm's way! He's into everything at the moment and keeping me on my toes. I also had Alan home most of the week, recovering from an operation (more later) and some workmen coming and going, doing stuff to Aoife's new room.

 

Monday: A neighbour popped in to borrow the sewing machine for half an hour. I think it's the most action it's seen in a couple of years!

 

Tuesday: Alan had keyhole surgery on his knee (an old rugby injury that finally caught up with him in the last few months).  He was 5/8 on the afternoon list so it didn't look like he'd make it home that day. But he did. Hooray!

 

Wednesday: Anyone call for a sparky? Richard, our electrician, came to pull the wires in Aoife's new room and Kirby took a shine to his toolbox.

 

Thursday: We're not raising a child, we're raising a mountain goat. He may not be able to walk yet, but he sure can climb. On anything. This is tame, but I'm usually too busy keeping him safe to take pictures!

 

Friday: I have a milestone birthday coming up in June, and I want to celebrate it in style, so I'm trying out some new low-carb recipes. This was the beginnings of a chocolate pudding. I'm trying a simple, low-carb Baci recipe next I think (found through the lovely Helena).

 

Saturday: From low-carb to high-carb in 24 hours! Baking marble cake with Aoife.

 

Sunday: Sunday night. Kids in bed. Collapse on sofa with a glass of wine, a bowl of nuts, and Boardwalk Empire.

That's the end of week 10.

This week is going to be fun. Alan is back at work (i'm not saying he got under my feet last week or anything, but...), the plumber is here today, and I hope we'll make a start on the flooring later this week. I'm also starting The Art of Wild Abandonment workshop with Junelle Jacobsen at Christy Tomlinson's place today. I can't wait.

I'll be back in a day or two with some new journal pages.Till then, my friends.

 

366 photos: day 51- 57

 

Well hello there!

Sorry I'm a bit late posting the weekly pics. I had a baby glued to my hip all day yesterday, and the day just ran away with me today trying to catch up on jobs around the house.

 

Monday: Painting up a few swatches for Aoife's new room. Three guesses what colour she wants it to be...

 

Tuesday: Making the plaster gauze heart I used on the Trust journal page.

 

Wednesday: Helping Aoife with her homework. She was getting frustrated with reading until we actively combined it with writing, so we now practise writing every evening after dinner.

 

Thursday: Kirby usually falls asleeps in the buggy after we've dropped Aoife off at school in the morning, and sleeps long enough that I can relax with a cuppa and catch up on a couple of bits before he wakes up.

 

Friday: LOL! It seems this is the only picture I took Friday. I need it for an art project I'm thinking of doing. And now I should go bang my head against it!

 

Saturday: I saw this recipe for a low-carb chocolate mousse made with coconut milk on Pinterest and decided to try it out. It didn't work. I'll give it another try next weekend. I may have had a bad can.

 

Sunday: Excuse the bad quality phone photo. Until now Kirby has fed himself by hand. On Sunday we decided to give him his mash in a bowl with a spoon to see how he'd do and he took to it like a pro. Clever boy!

And that's the end of week 8!

 

Don't forget that Google Friends Connect will no longer work on Life As We Know It from Thursday, March 1st. You can still subscribe in a reader (see the navigation bar under the header). I have also just joined bloglovin', so you can now use that too. The button is under my photo in the right sidebar.

Back in a day or two with my first ever ATCs.

 

366 photos: day 44-50

 

Oops! Sorry about that! Didn't mean to go missing for a week! It was kind of crazy around here with all four of us at home, the reno, the flu AND a new tooth.

 

 

Monday: Reno time!

 

 

Tuesday: A poorly little guy. Al took him downstairs around 3 am so I would get some sleep and they slept down there for the rest of the night.

 

 

Wednesday: A day in town while the electrician was here. When we got there, there were some rides and things set up in the town centre. Aoife was so happy she got to have a go at the bungee trampoline thingy.

 

Thursday: This girl is such a trooper! She loves stripping wallpaper as much as her mother, and did a great job of it too.

 

Friday: This picture sums up the craziness of the week. Around lunch time Friday Alan asked me if I knew I was wearing odd socks. Errm, no! And I was still wearing odd socks when I put the kids to bed that night.

 

Saturday: Don't you just love it when you unearth a piece of your house's history when you're redecorating? I was blown away by this drawing we found under the woodchip, and curious about the dates. I think they're decorating dates. If so, the woodchip had been up there 30 years! I can well believe it. It was covered in several layers of paint.

 

Sunday: Playing with my new phone (a belated Christmas pressie from Alan).

 

And that ends week 7!

 

366 photos: day 37-43

 

Monday: Making a start on the Geisha

 

Tuesday: Finishing off the geisha

 

Wednesday: Going to bed at 8.30 with a hot toddy, my gratitude journal and my kindle (we were all sick last week, we still are now...not fun)

 

Thursday: I'm slowly clearing out my bookmarks; deleting broken/outdated links and stuff I'm not into anymore, and pinning anything that can be pinned.

 

Friday: Kirby was 13 months on Friday. Here he was "helping" me clear out his room.

 

Saturday:Whenever we start a reno/ decorating project we let Aoife draw on the walls before we get going. She wasn't too keen on drawing on the woodchip though and I can't blame her. I can't wait to get rid of the stuff.

 

Sunday: Sorting through the last "few" bits.

I can't believe the amount of stuff we have charity bagged/ freecycled/ recycled/ binned over the last few weeks in preparation for this reno. When on earth did Alan and I turn into such hoarders? I hate clutter! 

And that's the end of week 6. Here's to bright beginnings and a healthier week 7.

Under the stairs

 

 

Yay! Things are finally starting to take shape in this awkward little corner under the stairs. I love it!

The new desk is just perfect for the space. It's nice and sturdy, looks lovely, and, best of all, it fits (you wouldn't believe how many nice- looking desks I had to reject because they were too big)!!! Next up... a shelf and an office chair. Oh, and finding some way to hide all those cables!

 Happy days!

366 photos: day 23-29

 

Monday: Ignore the cute baby, it's supposed to be about the box! The new desk arrived! Woo hoo! Alan then kindly spent a couple of nights putting it together after the kids had gone to bed, and we moved the furniture around on Saturday. Pictures to come.

 

Tuesday: I got a phone call early Monday afternoon, asking me to pick up Aoife from school because she wasn't feeling very well. She was much better in the evening, but I kept her home another day to be on the safe side. She was quite happy to have a pyjama day and to curl up on the sofa with her dolls and a hot water bottle.

 

Wednesday: I started my catch-all journal and was sooo excited about it. I feel a bit silly for not having thought of this before because it suits me down to the ground.

 

Thursday: It was still all about the journals as I went trough and worked out how to best simplify them.

 

Friday: Again, ignore the cute baby, it's all about the hoover (although he sure likes to "help"). Friday was big clean up day around here since I didn't get much done during the week.

 

Saturday: And another willing helper. This time Aoife, helping her dad with the new floorboards for her future bedroom.

 

Sunday: I was back in the craft room clearing stuff away. Alan helped me move out the old desk and bring in the dressing table I am going to use as a sewing table once it's done up. There's still a lot to be done out there, but I am making progress.

(Btw, if you look on the work station on the right hand side, you can see the mixed media project I showed last week is making some progress too)

And that is the end of another week!

 

366 photos: day 16-22

 

I'm so happy I finally got time to sort this corner of the kitchen. Here I keep all the things I want easy access to, like phone and camera chargers, school paperwork, the kids' medical books, menu plans, blank note-cards, stamps and the like, not to mention my handbag/ changing bag. The Alice bands are there for when Aoife paints in the kitchen.

 

I started a new mixed media project. I'm hoping to have it up on the blog pretty soon.

 

I sorted bags for the attic and charity shop (thrift store) pretty much all day. On top of my usual January clear out, I'm also starting to clear the wardrobes in the second bedroom in preparation for the reno.

 

Splashy splashy. We left home a few minutes earlier that morning so that Aoife could splash in every single puddle on her way to school. It was so much fun!

 

Like I said, I now come to you from an old dressing table under the stairs. The new desk is due today, so I wanted to remember what this corner was like for a short while. When the desk is in I'll hang a shelf above it too to make the most of the space. The fuddy duddy wallpaper (so not my style or colour choice) will stay until we can redo downstairs because it runs all the way up the stairs and onto the landing too.

 

Aoife knocked a couple of teeth loose over Christmas playing her new trumpet. She lost the first one on the school playground a couple of weeks ago. She lost the second one during lunch on Saturday.

 

Major clear out and clean up of the craft room in progress so I can start doing it up soon. It's got to look worse before it looks better, right?

Wow, this year is flying by!