Look what I found

Do you know what this is????

It is called elder flowers... most people live in blissful ignorance of the absolutely yummy potential these little flowers have. I only learned of that potential 6 years ago and am hooked ever since... "addicted" DOES sound a bit harsh... :

ELDERFLOWER SYRUP.

Friends from Austria visited us 6 years ago and brought a bottle of elderflower syrup as a little present. I was sceptical at first... but once I tasted it mixed with some soda water... geeee, it's good!!! Better than lemonade... ou so goooooood!!!

Elder trees are quite common in Germany... so after that first bottle from Austria I decided to give it a go to make that syrup myself... and I have done so every single year. Even when we were on the ship, we happened to be at the right place at the right time for the right season. And once I was out of my own I was lucky enough that IKEA sells that syrup as well and I could stock up my supply in various countries.

My hope to find those flowers here in Australia though weren't really high, practically none excising.

Imagine my surprise when I found two little tiny baby bushes at "Bunnings" in the herbal section... I bought and planted them as soon as we started with our garden, but I didn't expect to "harvest" blossoms at least until next year.

But then, last Saturday, I saw it. We wanted to go for a little "hike" (as mucha s you can "hike" with two little ones) and on the way there I saw it... a blooming elderberry tree amidst native Aussie bush !!!!!! I was SO EXCITED... beyond excitement!!! On the way back we stopped and nicked all the blossoms we could reach (okay, Ben did it, because the location of the tree was rather awkward surrounded by bush and a creek... plus I REALLY don't like spiders, especially if they might be poisonous, and being in Australia that is quite possible).

Well, back home I boiled 3l of water with 4kg of sugar and 100g of tartaric/citric acid in 2 big pots and added 4 big lemons cut in slices.

Once it boiled I switched it off and added the elderflowers which I had searched for any poisonous or none-poisonous crawly things... luckily there were hardly any crawly things in it though.

After that I let it sit for 2 days, stirred it occasionally, drank a bit prematurely an waited patiently... or not so patiently.

Finally I poured the syrup through a cloth to strain out all the little particles, boiled it once more and poured it in clean glass bottles... it's messy, but SO worth it!!!!!

YAY for elder trees in Australia!!!

Things that make me laugh

I had a dream a couple nights ago.

It did NOT make me laugh. I dreamed we were somewhere on a quayside or something. Ned fell in the water. I jump after him but it took me something like 20 min to find him in the murky water. When I finally found him and got him out of the water I started CPR: 30 compressions, 2 deep breaths, 30 compressions, 2 breaths... there was this man sitting on a wall next to me and saying: "Aren't you forgetting something??" I was so mad at him that he wasn't really helping me saving my son. But the ambulance finally arrived with medical people... but they didn't really know much about first aid either... we finally managed to get the defibrillators on and shocked him, put on some oxygen and he started breathing again and there was a pulse.

It was an aweful dream and so real, which made me really glad that I signed up both boys for swimming classes... and watching them in the water makes me laugh.

It was Cedric's first time last week, and boy he loved it. I loved seeing the sparkles in his eyes, hear the happy baby sounds he still makes and see the huuuge grin on his face for most of the time. I'm with him in the water, which is such a good thing. Somehow with having an older, demanding brother, Ced often seems to be a bit short on just Ced-mum time. It's good to be with my baby... who isn't really a baby no more, sigh.

Watching our vegetable garden grow makes me laugh. It amazes me that something I planted is actually growing... and it doesn't just yet look like dying any time soon... as long as them snails stay away, which they have.

Listening to Ned talking makes me laugh.

Me: "Ned, eat... please!"

Ned: "No, I'm talking!!"

or:

Cedric makes happy baby noises at breakfast. Ned: "Be quiet! I'm praying!"

The other day at the shops I had to laugh so hard. While I was paying our purchases, I allowed Ned to play on one of those toy ride things which moves if you put some coins in it, of course I don't, because... well, because I don't. When I walked up to him he was busy banging this particular car-toy-thing from behind, then he climbed back in, pressed a button and all of a sudden the machine started to move. It was SO funny. He was proud as Oscar sitting in his ride, I was bend over with laughing.

Watching my kids sitting on the back seat holding hands makes me laugh.

Watching Ben play "donkey" or "tiger" or "hide and seek" with them makes me laugh.

Seeing Cedric's unspeakable charming crooked, naughty smile which he flashes at you when he does something he isn't allowed to do (like emptying my kitchen drawers).

Ned insisting that I should NOT go with him to the toilet but his friend's mum.

Ned insisting on calling a banana a pear.

Cedric walking.... it's quite unique.

Our pantry... honestly, it makes me happy and smiling every time I walk in... it is really such a nice, huge, pantry :o)

Ced snuggling up to me when I feed him is evening bottle (it's almost the only time he ever snuggles)

My fall-apart-husband... presently he grunts and autch-es becasue of his knees (thanks to football) and his shoulder (he fell off his nice, flash, new bike, sigh which luckily wasn't damaged)

My red and white tea towels... I LOVE red and white in combination.

The tree mural that is taking shape in our bed room.

The cake I baked which was quite a monstrosity.

My friends... near and far.

watching things grow in out garden... and mean things that I actually planted, not only weeds (although they do grow as well).

There is so much which reminds me how good God is and it makes me bubble over with gratefulness and happiness...

And because so many people asked me about the wall I painted red... okay, at least Katrina did, here's a picture of my newly red kitchen island... sigh, I love read, it also makes me laugh :o)

Today was a good day

In the last couple weeks/months I had so many hard/challenging/maddening/flipping days. Sometimes (I hate to admit it) I didn't want to be with my boys anymore, wished I could go back to work, put them in day care and let someone else handle those tantrums and stuff. Tantrums are SO draining, physically and emotionally. And because they are so loud and overpowering they make you forget all the good times you've had. I am guilty of focusing on the negative forgetting what gorgeous, adorable, clever and fun boys they are.

But today was such a good day. I suppose those blue skies and the sunshine did help from the start. I found Ned's old last year's sandals and as expected they were too small but Ned's comment: "NICE shoes!!" made me laugh. He really likes shoes so I asked him if we should buy some new ones and then go to the beach. Cedric loves shoes too, if he can get a chance he'd happily empty out our shoe cupboard and we always have to make sure it is closed.

So we went and bought new sandals... and some sand toys to keep in the car... I mean, summer isn't far... neither is the beach, and the beach will be visited as often as possible and it is always good to have some toys in the car if the visit to the beach is a rather spontaneous one.

And to the beach we went... my boys digging like little wombats, it was such a joy just to watch them, and although I greatly dislike sand, I even enjoyed playing in the sand with them.

There is a playground right next to the beach, how convenient. So after we finished digging it was the playground. Ced LOVES the tube-slide... watching him giggle and beam while he tries to get down as fast as possible while I try to squeeze my adult-body into this kid-body-size tube-slide makes ones heart glad. Listening to Ned speaking more and more English also makes me glad... even though it makes me laugh as well. There was this other little girl he was playing with and when she left he called after her: "Mylady, come back!!". What a true gentleman, eh????

We love picnics as well, so that's what we did next. We love going to this place with an awesome view over the ocean, just a little walk away.

There are also these two lizards.

I suppose they are used to people having picnics there and because as soon as you get the food out they make an appearance... every time. In fact they seem to recognize us, today one of them tried to nibble on my toes... hmmmm.

There was one little tantrum attempt but it didn't develop into a fully grown tantrum. The evening was fun too. I asked myself why bath times always had to be with the lights on, so we had bath time without the lights on but with light sticks instead. It wasn't yet fully night outside (yeeesssss.... summer IS coming and it is light until 6:30 by now... I miss looooong German summer nights, sigh), so I tried to take some photos... they are a bit blurry...

I love bed time... not only because that means they are tucked away and sleeping, but getting them in bed is quite cute and fun. Ned loves going for a quick trip to the moon just before we read the bible. No idea where he got the idea from, but apparently there is a direct connection from our built-in robe to the moon. So he disappears in it, closes the doors and a couple seconds later he's back (but I guess just like with Narnia, time ticks differently once you're inside the cupboard). After we read the bible he says night night to Cedric which more often than not involves sitting on top of him somehow. And Cedric somehow doesn't approve of that. Then daddy says night night and leaves... and my (almost) most favourite time of the day starts: CUDDLES!! Ned and I snuggle up, sing songs together and cuddle... in the meantime Ced does one of two things: either he throws all his stuffed toy friends out of his bed or gathers them under his arms and snuggles with them.. heart-melting moments. Memories I want to engrave into my brain and heart and never forget... memories I want to remember when I'm mad at them, when they behave maddening... when the day isn't "good".

It was simple day, an ordinary day, but being with my two boys and enjoying each others company has made it extraordinary.

I know I'm biased... but who couldn't love them???

He left me... again!!!

Geee.... I hate that part of a missionaries life: staying behind while your husband travels the world. I guess I wouldn't mind so much if there weren't two very demanding little someones, and their daddy is MISSED a lot, if not by them, by me for sure!!!

We went up to Perth on Sunday to drop him off at the airport. Now driving to Perth just to drop someone off would just be a bit of a waste, so clever me decided to combine it with going to IKEA (YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!) But going to IKEA with two little ones is ain't no fun, so clever me asked my awesome mother-in-law if she'd like to have Cedric for 2 days... and after lots of persuasion (actually none at all) she agreed.

So it was only Ben, Ned and I driving up to Perth. But 5h driving with a three-year-old is still ain't no fun, so clever me asked a friend if they had a portable DVD-player and... BINGO!!!!!! Portable DVD-players definitely revolutionized car travelling... instead of "Are we there yet???" or three-year-olds posting their books out of the open window, you almost forget that there IS a three-year-old on the back seat, except if the DVD -player does something funny and the movie stops playing.

We arrived in Perth quite relaxed, dropped Ben off and headed on to go to Aunty Jill's place (not my aunty, Ned's aunty). Well, it was the first time driving for me in Perth. And my map book was a bit out of date. At least that is my defence, I can't proof it though because I can't show you the map book anymore because I lost it at IKEA. Anyway, you might have guessed, I went for a little unwanted sightseeing tour through Perth (how thankful was I for that DVD-player yet once more, you don't wanna be lost anywhere and having to pacify a three-year-old who just doesn't wanna be in a car no more).

Well, Aunty Jill came to the rescue and gave me the directions over the phone. But listening isn't one of my strengths. I do hear what is said, but my brain sometimes doesn't process the heard thing properly, so I took a couple more detours on the way, which bugged me quite a bit as I always prided myself of being good with directions and maps, grrrr)... anyways, we made it and Ned was almost upset having to get out of the car and away from the DVD-player. Aunty Jill made up for it though, she's a great aunty!!

And the next day we finally went to IKEA, my European heart was beyond excitement, YAY!!! Well, it took us another detour getting there, but now we know that the turn off from the highway is CEDRIC STREET, so it's easy to remember. And it was busy, school holidays I suppose. So this crèche playground thing was full. But my three-year-old WANTED to go in, unfortunately the mother wasn't really eager to wait for I don't know how long until there was space available for Ned to go in, but Aunty Jill came to the rescue yet again and volunteered to wait in line with Ned while I could get lost in all the awesomeness of the IKEA showroom.

I wanted to look for some couches, our hand-me-down-purple-pink-funny-pattern-couches just aren't really my style, although, they are VERY comfy!!! Anyway, they had this special offer if you bought a 2 seater and a 3 seater you'd get a 100$ discount. So I got all excited. Then I found out that it was 330$ to have them shipped down to Albany. Excitement bubble popped. IKEA has this self-serve-pick-up-or-what-ever-you-call-that-area so after I got all my other things I wanted I thought I'd just have a quick look at the the couch packages. Each couch was divided in 2 packages. And they looked like they might actually fit in the "beast" aka my sexy V6 station-wagon. Well, by then Ned and Jill had rejoined me (he did manage to go into the crèche for about a hour and almost didn't wanna leave again) and we went to pay for our purchases (not the couches yet though), dump them in the car and had a look at the beast again. I discovered that you can fold down only parts of the back seat, so we figured it would be enough space to actually fit most of the couch parts inside the car. As we had some lashing straps, we'd be able to put something on the roof rack as well.

So off we went back inside IKEA to buy the couches. Throughout all this back and forth and waiting and everything Ned was SUUUUUUCH a super good boy I was SO proud of his very good behaviour (I am proud of HIM all the time, no matter how he behaves), but when we finally reached the cash desk once again with our two trolleys loaded with couch pieces he found this stuffed IKEA toy dog someone else just dropped on top of some other merchandises ... seeing it and hugging it was one thing... and he looked oh so cute... I just melted on the spot there and then. Now a stuffed dog has joined our family. Ned wanted to name him Hermie. I tried to tell him that the name "Hermie" was taken already by the teddy. I suggested Max. He did NOT like Max at all. He wanted the dog to be Hermie. I went through a couple other name suggestions: Bob, Frank, Louie... and Louie he liked. I don't know how I came up with Louie... but now we have a stuffed dog named Louie, but called LouLie by his lord and master as he can't say Louie somehow. Anyway.

We bought the couches. They fitted in and on the car. And there was still space for us as well as for the other stuff I'd bought. It was almost time to drive back down to Albany. But I wanted to have lunch first. So into IKEA we went once more. Jill had to say good bye to us though. I thought I'd better take the map book to have a good look at it so I wouldn't go for another unwanted sightseeing tour. I did have a look. Jill had roughly told me how to get back down to Albany luckily, because after lunch we went to the toilet , got in the car and drove off... and the map book remained at IKEA. I know it was out of date by 10 years, but rather a out-dated map book than no map book at all... ou well, I mad it without any more detours. In fact we had a very good trip home... okay, I was paranoid that the half of the couch on the roof top would loosen up somehow, fall off and cause a major accident with thousands of casualties, or that a Kangaroo would cause us to cause an accident an topple over because of the extra lump on top of our roof, but all I managed was to loose my tank cap... I forgot to screw it back on when I filled up the tank... duh, that was stupid.

Anyway, we made it without any accidents or kangaroo sightings or lost couch part, in fact I got to work straight away once the boys were in bed (after I got the other boy delivered back home). It is strangely satisfying to built your own couch... okay it is only screwing the parts together, but still... they are still standing and haven't yet collapsed or anything....

Don't report me to greenpeace, PLEASE!!!

I should be in bed... it is way too late once again and after last night it would have been nice to go to bed early... but well... you know me... I'm just a night bird, so here I sit and tell you about last night:

I think the best part about a snail is that cute little house especially if it is just the house without the slug-part still attached to it. So besides the cute houses I was never really fond or attached to snails. And nothing has changed in this regard since owning our own GARDEN... in fact my not really been fond of them turned into "I really can't stand them, ESPECIALLY if they use my newly planted lemon-tree for dinner!!!!".

My sons seem to have quite a different point of few. Ned LOVES collecting snails and then he is on his tummy and watches them coming in and out of their houses, sticking their antennas out, fascination is an understatement.

Cedric's love is quite different again. The other day when I was weeding the grass part of the garden (can't believe how much time I spend out there trying to be a gardener), Ced walked up to me and I could hear him crunching on something. when I looked up and at him I saw some snail antennas still sticking out of his mouth... gee... and I had to get that thing out of his mouth again, inclusive the crushed house.... I wonder if Ned's feeding them to Ced... hmmmm... I don't wanna know.

Anyway, last night I went for a walk and a talk with a friend and came home around 10pm... and I looked in the grass part of our garden infront of the house... and I could NOT believe my eyes... it was covered with snails. They must come over from the little reserve lake thingy next to us and party in our garden eating the veggies we try to grow. So I got some gloves, a torch and a plastic bag. 1 1/2h later it looked like that:

It is more than gross.... it's beyond gross... just looking at the picture makes the hair on my neck stay on its ends.

Then we did a very irresponsible and silly thing... Ben and I drove off and left the boys at home ALL BY THEMSELVES without them even knowing it... okay, it was literally for only 5 min but still it felt weird. We had this roadside collection the last couple of days and I'd seen this broken crib which would be perfect to turn into a little bench so off we went to get it with our sexy V6 stationwagon... it didn't fit in entirely though we had to leave the boot open... and of course we were driving past 2 police officers... luckily they didn't pull us over and tell us off with a fine, but we had the giggles and thought it extremely funny.

So after that broken crib was out of the car and stored next to another couple of projects I have to get to, I finished doing this and that around the house and was finally ready to hit the sacks... well, Ned had a different plan. He complained about tummy ache and wanted to sleep in mama's bed, ou well, I thought he looked a bit off colour so I grabbed him and moved him over and as a thank you he puked extremely stinky puck all over our bed... after that was finally cleaned up, little fellow calmed down and husband moved to the guestroom I was ready to sleep... unfortunately the thoughts of those repulsive snails kept me from sleeping, I felt so grossed out and in my state of being half asleep, half awake I could not get rid of the thoughts of those slugs and their fellows who'd most likely be eating OUR attempt of growing vegetables.... bahh!!

Ben went snail picking again today and it was much better and by far not as many as last night... we'd thrown some snail bait over the fence and that must have helped... but now I will be a good girl and go to bed... hang on I still gotta take a shower... that'll wake me up again