New Crew

Meet our new crew of chicks......

After retiring the last two, we have now recruited our new brood of egg laying beauties.

The first lot of chickens we had were Hy-line's. They were awesome at producing good size eggs. The second lot we had were Isa Brown's, although good in my opinion they were a little meaner.

So we decided to make a longer trek this time to collect these beauties...Hy-Line's.

and to make sure they settled in nicely we did a git of go pro spy camera work...fascinating little things.

Time to give back

I have this theory that in every one of us we have a space that can only be fulfilled by volunteering......giving extra of ourselves to benefit others....

Well OK I know this is true for myself anyway. Over my lifetime I have always volunteered in some way...mostly through my local church. I have helped with community events,in the nursery, joined a team to help those who are less fortunate, put my hand up to just about try anything.

Up until just recently I have always found something or someone who is desperate for extra hands...We have had a shift in that part of our life and even in the short few weeks of this change I am missing exercising my "volunteering muscle".

That is until I discovered a new little shop open not far from home.....
The "Wishing you Well Store".    
Today I headed down and have offered my services for a bit of time each week. This is two fold for me....getting that "volunteering muscle" working and giving back to a charity that we so generously benefited from back in 2002.*

Make a Wish granted our Taylor a wish.....her fairy garden.....After all this time I think the timing is perfect for me to reconnect with some of those lovely people and also give a little back to volunteer in this new venture of theirs.

So it is win for them...and win for me...although my love for op shopping could land me in trouble as I headed home with a few treasures today.

Do you exercise your "Volunteer muscle" anywhere 

*{I really must show you the wish we were granted....it was so fantastic for our Taylor}

School Ready

It's time to become school ready for us.  School returns next Monday.

With that in mind I thought I should at least have a look at what the kids need.....they are not the only ones in denial about returning to school!

Luckily not too much more than what is tucked away in the stationary overflow cupboard....if you have been a school family for more than a couple of years you probably have the overflow of school supplies that builds each year too.

But  a new pencil case was required. So I set off to Spotlight with the boy to choose his own material.

They are really simple to put together...here's a tutorial if you need one 

15 minutes at my sewing machine and all done.

So now we are a little more school ready for next week......Now just to get our heads around the idea.

Happy Australia Day

We may be all sporting slightly blushed faces from too much sun......but we were lured by the gorgeousness of the day.

Hope your Australia Day was just as fun

Summer rains

It is still hot!

But the heavens broke today and we were doused in a heavy shower of rain.

Didn't cool the day down but the gardens almost groaned with delight at the drenching it received...

 Now the night skies are filled with lightening.

Oh Summer.

Oh Summer

Oh  Summer...

Why oh why so  so so hot!

I know, I know, that is what summer is ....but no respite day and night is wearing....

Lucky we had a date with friends on the river today....a little boating for the big boys and kids and a big shady tree for the mummies.

{my whinging is falling on deaf ears, as while we were away in the sunshine all last week.....it was very not summery here.}

Celebrate success

On different sides of the country today...we celebrate with our kids

One completed a successful week of new experiences in dance 

 

and the other successfully passed his swimming level  after two weeks of beach lessons.
 

Tomorrow we will all be back doing life together.

#1154   Thankful List - Goals achieved

Shenaningans

The challenge was issued.......luckily to her dad and not to me!

He can go head to head with her on most physical things......but when it comes to stretches......she is far more flexible ....and she had too much  fun this afternoon with too much bravado from another excellent adventure day in dance.

Me....I am starting to feel the effects from all the fresh air walking we are doing in this city of Brisbane and was no way going to manage any kind of stretching.

Walk total today = 16.9kms

A little cultural day

Not wanting our daughter to have all the cultural limelight, we set off towards to culture/arts precinct of Brisbane. I had heard that the Gallery of Modern Art was a place worth visiting. 
So by foot, by ferry, by foot we made the trek. It was a very interesting place and it was lovely to wander slowly throughout the displays. The added bonus was it was cool....a humid day today outside.
From there we headed by foot and ferry to the city for a few essential items on our list. Enjoying coffee stops along the way has also been fun....who knew there were so many different ways to make / drink coffee? Sadly it was after we had just had a coffee break that we discovered that in fact their is a "Bassett" coffee suppler around......on our "to have before we head home" list now. Funny I should say we......it is just a "he" thing! I don't drink coffee at all....so I am enjoying the variety in Hot Chocolate around.

Well it is hump day today and our dancer is having a great week....sore and pretty tired but filling up on all sorts of experiences and loving the variety of great teachers she is exposed too.

Walk total today = 16.5 kms + too many blisters from wearing the wrong shoes.

A helping hand...

 Our day in the sunshine state today gave us the opportunity of visiting with our dear friends up the coast.....they are right in the middle of packing up for a move....so lucky for them we lent a hand ( or maybe we just created more confusion) ....it was the least we could do seeing as we had a very lovely lunch by the water with them
Good friends are those who you live thousands of miles away and yet you can just pop in and lend a hand and have a good laugh along the way.

 While Meg is off doing her thing all week we intend to relax but we are also giving some head space to what our 2016 will look like....we already know it will be different to last year and are very expectant to the new around the corner.....so our ears and eyes are open.....looking for all sorts of inspiration..........
Like this???? .

Walk total  = 7 kms

Walking and Dancing

This week is about new things......
Meg was given the opportunity to dance in a new environment this week.....it did mean that we have had to travel to the other side of the country which also means that her dear old mum and dad have a week to explore and seek out all things new too.

So today she went off all excited but nervous and we sent her off all excited minus the nerves because we knew she would do good and that the experience of this week will be awesome for her.
So what was left for us to do but some exploring of our own.... we set off on foot to see how far we could get....well we got a long way...I think we walked almost 15.5 Kms today, which is no mean feat for this not so totally fit member of the family.
It was such a beautiful day...temperature was perfect and the city of Brisbane turned on a treat for us. 

Walk total  = 15.5 kms