So...Lopping off the Locks

After a couple months of talking about it, telling me "Are you crazy, I'll freeze to death, don't you know it's winter!" and musing it over, our eldest finally decided it was time to cut his hair...I think the tangles were getting us both down.
And then of course Murphy showed up, literally an hour or two later (or so it seemed), in the form of chickenpox and put a halt to that idea.  We weren't even allowed to think of touching his hair until all the the scabs had completely disappeared.
So the other morning when he finally said he was ready I wasted no time in getting right down to cutting it.

Being no hairdresser myself, and having a particularly sensitive client to work on, it was challenging to get a uniform type look. But considering I had to work at lightening speed on someone who shrieked and jerked away from the scissors constantly, I think it's almost a miracle we didn't have to shave it afterwards.
And before you even suggest it...a professional hairdresser is currently not an option we're allowed :)
After the cut he seemed to let loose and was completely buoyant for the rest of the day.  Although he  refused to look in the mirror for several days...apparently seeing how his shadow looked was enough for him and it took a few days and lots of compliments from all the important people in his life to work up the courage to have a peek in the mirror.

Anyway, here he is a few moments after finishing the cut, refusing to look at me but looking remarkably pleased considering the shrieking that had been occurring moments before.
And then somehow his sister managed to convince him to carry her around until I stopped trying to take photos.

As much as I love him with long hair, it is nice to see his face again and the pure fact that I no longer have to attempt to brush the tangles out of the longer hair totally makes up for any momentary pangs I have about him cutting it :)

23/52 - Preserved Lemons

I was reflecting on this photo challenge earlier today as I was arm deep in various lemony things (which I'll try share over the next few weeks), and I realised that I'm really enjoying it because it is motivating me to do things rather than just think about them.  It's also helping us along the way to achieving some of the things we feel are important like making good healthy food from home grown produce, wasting less, being thrifty etc etc etc.  Of course not all the posts are around these specific things, but in general this challenge is helping to make me more conscious of them.

On that note here are some of the lemons from our home grown lemon tree that I preserved the other day.  Although I've often seen and read about preserved lemons I have never actually used any myself.  These ones should be ready to use in another week or so and I have a recipe waiting in the wings to try them out, but I'd love to hear if any of you use preserved lemons and what you use them in, so please do share!

22/52 - Fathers Day Offerings

Made by the Kidlets

So...the Father person's day

It was father's day last weekend, we had a lovely day and hope all the Dads did too.

We made some artwork earlier in the week, and you can see the evidence of chickenpox on the children.  Luckily they have all had it now and are better, and we don't have to worry about chickenpox later in life, so it is all good!

On the day we baked some double cheese muffins for breakfast before heading over to Grumpy and Noni's house for a lovely roast lamb lunch.  After that it was time to run all the food off with a bit of cricket.

21/52 - Socks

Francie socks - knitted by me

So...Brothers

The other morning I caught these two playing so beautifully together, moments like these make my heart feel too big for my body!

Hello!

 Things got a bit hair raising with the winter static about

 Man down

 Big love

So...What have we been up to?

Well few weeks back we went on holiday, did a bit of road tripping, caught up with good friends and enjoyed the beach.

We also came this -><- close to buying a house in a forest with a river running through it.

And this is what chickenpox looks like...it was over and done with easily enough, now we just have to wait and see if the other two get it!

20/52 - Vitamin Juice

1.

2.

1. Infusing with the early morning sunshine
2. Mid morning and ready for snack time
With citrus being in season and our lemon trees full of ripening fruit I'm always looking for ways to use them.  I decided to make my own "vitamin juice", I used our filtered water and added a few slices of lemon and orange, a couple leaves of mint and a handful of raspberries.