Love, bubs and life on our little farm

..then it would be worth it to me!

OK I am not here to preach - I am not a vegetarian, I don't buy only free range meat etc so I am far from perfect. But my little thing - is cage eggs. I love chickens and have had them as pets my whole life. They are lovely little ladies who enjoy the finer things in life such as sun and dust baths and cluck around pecking fresh green grass and chasing bugs. They don't have a mean bone in their body and are endearingly stupid, such as one of our chickens who likes to lay eggs standing on top of an outside cupboard so that they plop out and promptly roll off the edge and break.

Knowing how lovely chickens are and how much they enjoy life, it breaks my heart knowing the conditions that cage egg chickens live in. They are jammed into cages so tightly they never learn to spread their wings, their feet only know how to grip wire mesh, their beaks are cut off so they can't peck each other in their frustration, they have muscle wastage and lose their feathers and they are simply treated as egg machines. At the age of 2, they are worn out and can't keep up the expected egg production so they are killed.

Unless they are saved by a charity such as The Battery Hen Adoption Project and rehomed. Then they can live out their lives as real chickens - scratching, foraging, dust bathing and sunning themselves. I couldn't resist when I found out about this charity - I had to take some chickens. So this weekend I received my two ex-battery hens. I was a little heartbroken at the state of their poor little scrawny bodies, lack of feathers and cut off beaks.

But two days into being in our chicken run they are learning to scratch and peck up grain with their mutilated beaks. They love jumping up to peck leaves and they are getting the hang of stretching their wings. I am going to really enjoy watching them become healthy and happy.

So I have had a flurry of medical appointments for Bronte in the last two days. Its all pretty serious now, as in she now has the tag of permanent hearing loss and we are waiting for the appointment to get hearing aids fitted. I am all OK with it until I think about my little one's sweet baby head marred with ugly plastic pieces of electronics and then I get a little wobbly. I know I haven't processed it all properly as I tend to push it all deep down and move on. I am just determined to do the best by Bronte and I am glad that we are well off and in a position to make the most of private specialists etc. My mantra is "give me the strength to accept what I cannot change.."

I am also so appreciative of the amazing support that I have received from other Mums - I must say that Mums who have been through the rollercoaster of having a little one diagnosed with a problem are just wonderful at giving advice and offering up their experiences.

I am a bit tense at the moment, I am finding Elka to be quite a handful this week. She is very bright and I am finding that I am dealing with a whole different level of misbehaviour to most other Mums with two year olds. Most people are a little taken back when I describe Elka's defiance and ways of avoiding/defusing punishments for her deliberate acting out. Most of my friends 2yr olds simply have a tantrum and then move on with life. She loves getting in trouble and enjoys punishments such as time out and having her toys taken away - she will tell me she is going to "be naughty" so that she can get in "trouble". Even my best sources of advice including my Mum have no suggestions left with how to best deal with Elka currently. I am just focusing on rewarding her positive behaviour and trying to go with the flow. With Bronte doing mulitple nightfeeds again and the tradies starting work at 6am, I am finding that I am exhausted before I begin the day which doesn't help my patience. I am very much looking forward to going back to work!

I am starting to get a little claustrophobic with the building site too - I long to have my front yard back and to be able to walk from my car to my front door, rather than parking in a paddock and carrying a baby in capsule and a whinging toddler (who also insists on being carried - I don't need a gym!) around to the back of my house. There are large amounts of tradies at the work site at the moment - great for progress but not so great for privacy and quiet.

We have also been dealing with this kind of weather:


But despite the rain, having the roof on and the fact that our entire extension is surrounded by large wrap around verandahs has meant that we can get a lot of work still done. We now have the electrical wires all done, the gyprock all up and patched inside for the walls and ceilings, the cavities for the sliding doors done, the inserts above the windows done, the bricks almost all up and the battens for the ceilings on the decks and verandahs started. The ensuite waterproofing should be done soon and then the tiling. Definitely on the home stretch now!

I am bit slow in this update - we have actually progressed past this stage but this was still a major cause for celebration in this house as we have had water damage on our flanking wall to the extension (as its bricks were removed) thanks to the large amount of winter rain we have had through this process. So a roof and gutters symbolise an end to my anxious cloud staring and cursing at the BOM radar.

We repainted our exisiting facia's so that they look as new as the new ones on the extension and we decided to replace all of our current gutters as they were mismatched and peeling. We chose to change the colour from the Colourbond Classic Cream to the Pale Eucalypt colour of the roof. I am happy with the decision now that it is up - phew!



I love the new roof line - it really emphasises how big our house now is and looks far more "interesting" then the straight retangle roof line we used to have.




Next update will show that we have all the windows and doors in, bricks delivered, wall insulation installed, window cladding done and hopefully when the brickies are free next week, we will have walls!

We have also had some water rotted barge boards replaced on the other end of our existing house and new capping on all sides of the roof and along the top - may as well fix as many problems as we can whilst we have a builder on site!

Our plumbing is done and has passed council and we have a new outdoor tap on the new side of the house which I find more exciting than I probably should hehe.
We have organised our french sliding doors for the study-lounge room door and electrician has all our wiring plans for umpteen outdoor lights (wow that made me realise how much verandah we now have!) and internal lights and power points..

Every year we head to the Swell Sculpture Festival on the Currumbin Beach - its such a gorgeous time of year to hold it. The Spring weather is just settling in and we are ready to get back to beach trips and soaking up the sun. The sky was the cornflower blue that I love best and it was a white sand/aqua water kind of day. Bliss!

This was Bronte's first trip to the beach and she even donned her little swimmers and rashie and had a paddle. Elka eagerly took her new body board but spent most of the time running away from the waves.. I braved my first wear of a bikini post second pregnancy and it really was braving it, as we were swimming right in front of the glass windows of the fully booked surf club restaurant lol. But it was nice to be back on the sand and enjoying living where we do. The beach was one of the biggest reasons why I was so adament that we had to return to the coast and leave Canberra.

Apart from swimming (and eating of course!) we admired the sculptures. I think this year had some of my favourites yet. I loved the handbags carved out of stone and a ute that was half city (restored) and half country (rusted and dirty) was quite cute.

So the facia and gutter installers required scaffolding to be set up around the elevated areas of the house. The builder took advantage of this and finished off the ceiling on the deck eaves. This meant we had a brief window of one night where we could paint this ceiling while the scaffolding was set up. Cue us balancing on two storey high scaffolding under floodlights at 8pm at night painting away. Only to be topped off by having to get up and do the 2nd coat at 5am! Poor Jase is also afraid of heights but he did very well!

But it is done now :) and the rest of the painting hopefully will be more staighforward (or at least less suspended in the air lol)

More photos of the new roof and gutters to come.

I currently share my front and back yard with numerous tradies and builders. From 7am until 6pm, I have people working around the windows, through my gardens and I can't drive my own car anywhere near our turnaround driveway, shed or carport.

I like my space so it has taken some getting used to. I have taken to walking to get some space to myself (as much space as you get as a mum to two kids who come with you hehe). Unfortunately being semi-rural means that there are no parks to walk in or even a footpath on any of our roads. So I take my trusty two kid pram loaded up wtih the girls and I push it on our stone driveway and down the quietest roads I can. I have to off road and dodge cars doing 100kms an hour, but its still heaven. Elka loves it, she sits quietly for an hour and even cries when we turn for home.

The big hills are a pretty good work out too. The spring weather has been devine and today was a good day to be alive.






More extension pics to come - we have the roof completed today, new gutters all around and Jase even helped put up the double sliding door in the lounge room - exciting!

So poor little Bronte had to have blood taken yesterday for some testing to rule out infections as a cause of her hearing loss. Needless to say taking blood from the tiny veins of a 3 month old is pretty traumatic for everyone in the room. It was pretty upsetting and as I left the path lab, I realised that my jaw was aching from being clenched for so long.

So I headed to the shops for some much needed retail therapy. Shopping for new season clothes is a special experience after having spent 3 or so seasons shaped like a snake that has swallowed a watermelon. Its very exciting to be able to pick up any style and know that you can wear it. I am also satisified with my weight loss and toning so I am now happy to start buying more expensive clothes as they will get the wear.

I couldn't not buy something from the cool urban military range in Witchery currently. I don't own much khaki green despite having green eyes/brown hair which suits that colour, so I decided to rectify that with this very cute tank top.





This purchase made me decide I needed some neutral or khaki coloured ballet flats. And I was very pleased to come up with these:



Next on my list was a floral spring dress but I wasn't really happy with the ones I tried although Bardot and Forever New had some lovely options, they just weren't breastfeeding friendly and that is still a major requirement for my clothing this year. Oh well plenty more opportunities to look!

My current Want list:
- a new light foundation
- new mascara (Mum and I are going to a beauty event at Myer tomorrow night so I am hoping to pick up the make-up purchases then)
- spring floral dress
- a light funky jacket to throw over singlets/strappy dresses (Portmans has some great ones)
- a new pair of cute cropped jeans
- some striped tailored shorts (Witchery has a few promising styles)
- some cute strappy flats
- a sexy short dress for a beach wedding coming up in December (Forever New had some good options)

It has been a bit stressful around here again. Jase was away for a week on a work trip, rain has been reaking havoc on our extension (and our existing house also as we have had the old gutters pulled off - what a mess!) and Bronte is in the middle of heaps of medical appointments (including having blood taken tomorrow, poor tyke).

So I have been paying attention to what calms my jangling nerves and soothes me and I realised I am blessed with so many comforts.

- Bronte - bubby hugs, warm breastfeeding cuddles and big gummy grins and laughs make me content.

- Elka - cheeky grins, funny comments and non-stop singing of the alphabet song are guaranteed to lift my mood.

- Jase - having him home from his trip instantly soothed me. I can't imagine not having him in my life.

- My family - cosy chats over coffee with my Mum, watching Dads beaming face as he played with Bronte and proudly took Elka to library storytime and sisterly love: watching Bronte giggling and cooing at Elka whilst Elka strokes her head and kisses her, bless.

- my horses, grooming a horse can be like therapy, its medatative and reminds me of what we work so hard for out here, to have these gentle quiet rural experiences.

What makes you feel soothed?

I have been trying to avoid the shops - I am reluctant to spend money on anything but the bottomless hole of our extension. Add to that, the fact that Bronte likes to scream whenever we enter shops, including grocery stores, and I have been pretty quiet on the clothes purchasing.

However, I have had a bit of a not so fun month and decided to head to my parents place for some support and company (Jase is away on a work trip for the whole week). WIth the luxury of extra hands for toddler wrangling, I decided I could get a little bit of retail therapy.

I love the look of the spring fashions - I am dying to find a perfect floral dress, I love the dusky pinks that are in and the feminine ruffles, lace and pearls are right up my alley. But strangely, nothing really jumped out - bummer! (OK besides a $600 Carla Zampatti dress that was totally impractical for currently!) My chance wasted.... but not entirely, I did grab a gorgeous ivory bow and ruffle top from Forever New.

However, I made up for that shopping with spending on bathroom fittings and paint from Bunnings! My arm is so sore from scraping back paint on our barge boards, that I can barely type! But it all needs to be painted before the gutters go up on Monday. Fingers crossed for no rain - the delays from rain so far are driving me batty :( but alas more rain is forecast.

I managed to get a good deal on the ensuite fittings by buying all from the one place, which was by far the cheapest place anyway. Jase was no help whatsoever with bargaining and nearly copped a thumping from me, when he blithely announced in front of the sales assistant when I was nit picking over prices, "oh we don't have a budget". Hmm thanks for that Jase. Regardless I pushed on and still managed to increase our bulk buy discount.

We have everything in boxes in our shed waiting for our ensuite to be ready but I snapped a few pics in the store as I don;t want to unpack it all just yet. Can't wait to see it all installed with the gorgeous tiles we picked out!