A little post full of a lot of love

Tuesday this week was the birthday of a dear friend of mine, Paige. Paige and I met several years back through a mutual love of all things house rabbit. We spoke online a lot, eventually met in person and hit it off right away.
Paige was the nutter wearing motorbike boots with flames on them at my wedding. The persons house that is so inviting that my husband falls into a coma on her lounge every time we visit. She's just a little bit crazy and sometimes I'm sure she's the female incarnation of Peter Pan.
But most of all she's someone who is a huge inspiration to me in so many aspects of my life.
Despite having so many health problems, and not much understanding from others about them, she is always smiling, always ready to laugh, always filled with loving words. She is a defender of those who cannot defend themselves, and one of the biggest animal lovers I've ever met.
Paige and her husband Phil cannot have children, so they have spent their lives fostering kids, and eventually adopting their son, Joshua, who has Down Syndrome. Not that Joshua's condition defines him in any way, shape or form. This is one young man who is absolutely rocking that extra chromosome.

In Joshua you can see the model of a mother that Paige is, and just why she is such an inspiration in my own mothering of Ellie. She was such an obvious choice to be one of Ellie's Godmothers, she is the epitome of what a Godmother should be.

She spoils her "Ellie Bean" rotten, every time we see each other she is armed with clothes, toys and a million cuddles. There are so many attributes of Paige that I would love to instill in Ellie as she grows up - her compassion, her ability to laugh when she wants to cry, her strength of character, her love of animals. Maybe not so much her potty mouth and naughty sense of humor, however.
Paige is loved by so many people. When she was in a car accident recently her Facebook wall was FILLED with messages of love and well wishes from right across the globe. She has touched so many lives and hearts, but is so very modest and humbled by the love she receives. I've never seen her take anyone, or anything for granted. She is always thankful, and always generous with whatever she can share.
Happy birthday to a very loved friend. You are such a wonderful part of our lives, Paige. Thank you for sharing your huge heart with us.

A delicious ending to a horrible week

This week has really not been a good one in the Sun household. First off I had a bunch of tests following some girly issues and the fact that we haven't conceived yet. You can read more about that on my other blog, should you wish to. I've been spending far too much time playing Dr. Google since, which really isn't good for me and my stress levels.
Then on Wednesday my husband gave a startled cry from Ellie's room while changing her nappy. The reason? Chicken pox. Admittedly I'm glad that she's gotten them now, although the case was mild and I doubt she developed full immunity from it. I'd thought her fever and general whineyness in the days before was because she was teething, but no, apparently not.
Then today Ellie woke up with a runny nose and a horrible cough. And, rather than running outside and ramming my head into the brickwork like I felt like doing, I decided I'd clean the house, and then bake. And that's just what I did. Hooray for distractions!

First of all, I made Julie's Lemon Diva Cupcakes from my Masterchef recipe book.

I ran out of yellow, but pink is exciting too.

 Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ⅓ cups self-raising flour
½ cup milk
zest of 3 lemons

Butter frosting:
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups icing sugar
approx 1 tablespoon milk

Grated lemon rind.

My Lady La mixing patty pans. I can't wait til we can bake together properly.

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C (160 fan-forced). Line muffin tin with paper cases.
Using electric beaters, cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Fold through the flour and milk in two alternate batches until just combined, then gently fold through lemon zest.
Divide mixture evenly between patty pans. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when gently touched in the centre.
Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to completely cool before icing.
To make the butter frosting:
Use electric beaters to beat the butter until light and creamy. Add icing sugar a little at a time while beating constantly. Add milk until desired consistency is reached. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

The finished product. Hubby was rather chuffed with them.

Next I decided to use some more lemons and make some Lemon Curd to keep, as well as a jar for my parents, and one for my elderly neighbour, who is an absolute sweetheart. I doubled the recipe to make 1 litre. This one is an arm workout and a half as there is a fair bit of whisking.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 egg yolks

¾ cup caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 3 lemons
125g butter, chopped.

Whisking - the bane of my existence!

Method:
Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until well combined and the sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the juice and zest.

Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water, but do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Allow the mixture to heat, stirring regularly, then gradually add the butter, whisking until combined before adding more. This process should take about 15 minutes until the mixture is thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool before adding to a wide mouthed jar.

Cooling off while I nursed an aching arm. Did I mention I hate whisking?

Sunshine in a jar!

All pretty and off to my neighbour. Her and her husband were so happy, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Sometimes it's worth making the effort to smile, no matter how awful the week has been. This was such a lovely distraction, and Ellie and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon baking. Here's hoping next week will be a better one.
Blessings to you all.

The start of our veggie garden and some lemony baked goodness

I'm very excited to say that my veggie garden is officially under way. It's been a long four years in the making, although most of that four years has admittedly been procrastination on my behalf. At one point last year I got excited and started to dig it, only to find half of my backyard has buried cement in it (which, according to my neighbours, was a swimming pool a few years before we moved in. Thanks for filling that in, previous owner, it's not like I would love a pool or anything!), so because of that, our only option has been raised garden beds. So on Tuesday afternoon we went and got our first garden bed. How excitement. Until we realised we'll need another modular bed to go on top of it to make it deep enough, but that's okay, because in the meantime we can leave some bunny litter on the top to rot down a little.

Hooray for our fur children for contributing!

Cairne and Ellie playing. Rei pretending to work.

Excitement!

My child, displaying her building skills! Ikea flat packs, here we come!

Now to leave this for a couple of weeks. I'm so impatient!

Strawberries! Can't wait for these. Neither can my Strawberry Monster, Ellie.

One has a pink flower. This is new and exciting to me!

Apparently Rei can't wait either.

Lending a hand by putting the tags in.

When we first moved in, my cousin and her friends got us a lemon tree as a housewarming gift. It has fruit all year round, and while pottering in the backyard, I decided it was time to harvest some. And by some I mean copious amounts. Guess who's making lots of lemon stuff!

Making lemon tea cake. Recipe here.

So the finished product doesn't look very attractive, but it was damn delicious!

On the lemon baking list this week we have the lemon cupcakes the Julie made in the first season of Masterchef and some lemon curd. Mmmm, delish! I'll be sure to share some recipes. And hey, if you need some lemons, I know someone who has a bunch, haha.

To Sydney and back again!

Road trip! I love road trips so much! 
Hubby is a Sydney boy originally, so this means we try to make a trip back at least once a year.
It's always been a fun thing to do, but it's even more special now we get to take Ellie to spend some time with her YeYe and NaiNai. She is their first grandchild, being as Rei is an only child, and although we video call them every Sunday, they do miss out on a lot of seeing her grow up. So it's always a special time seeing them together in person. I absolutely adore my in-laws, which helps. I can't imagine what it must be like for people who don't get along with their in-laws.

Reading a bedtime story with NaiNai

Come on YeYe, let's go outside!

As well as Rei's parents, a trip to Sydney also means seeing Rei's school friends, who are absolute barrels full of awesome.

Ellie with Aunty Minyi and Uncle John (who is one of her Godfathers)

What do parents do when they get to catch up with friends sans child? MINI GOLF!

Rei and John.

High Tea. Hooray!

Cheers!

And I get to catch up with my cousin and her little family, who are obviously amazing because they're related to me. This time we visited the aquarium!

My lovely cousin and I.

Look Mama, fish!

I'd like this in my house.

Touching all the shells. Very exciting stuff.

 

I also got to meet a wonderful group of ladies and babies from the Sydney region that I met via the Huggies website when I was pregnant with Ellie. I've already caught up with the Melbourne girls and bubs twice since having Ellie, so it was nice to meet some others. The group has been an amazing source of advice and support for me and we've all become quite close via our Facebook chats.

Us and our July 2011 bubs at Olympic Park

.

Weeeee, horsie!

We also got to enjoy some sunshine while away, which was nice after Melbourne's artic winter this year. Although I must admit, Melbourne weather has lifted it's game upon our return. Perhaps it's worried we'll leave it for a sunnier city?

And we had to do something touristy on the way home and visit The Dog on the Tuckerbox. Rei and I stopped there back when we were making our very first trip to Sydney together in 2008 for me to meet Rei's parents for the first time.

Rei back in 2008

Rei and Ellie 2012

How times have changed!

Time flies when you're having fun, and now I must reflect about it

I officially have a walker now. She started walking a few weeks back and hasn't looked back since. 
It feels like not that long ago I had this little bundle:

And now, all of a sudden I have this for a shadow:

I won't pretend that I'm not enjoying the stage she is at now though. She interacts with me so much now, which can be somewhat difficult while I'm cooking, or cleaning, or using the little Mama's room. Still, we have a lot of fun. She LOVES being outdoors too, which means I now have a legitimate reason for blowing bubbles - hooray! 
I really think I was put here to be a Mum. I love it so much. Every morning when I wake up I feel at peace, and it's such a lovely feeling.

That being said, lately I've been struggling with a bit of an identity crisis of sorts. I feel like I've become a housewife and Mother and that there is little more to me. Not that I have a problem with that personally, but when someone asks me what I do I get that "...oh" response when I tell them. That or "Don't you get bored?!" - um, yeah, I have the time to be bored when? Before Ellie I was the gamer, the geek and the animal carer. "That crazy bunny lady" or "that geeky chick". Now all of a sudden I don't have the time for video games and I'm no longer working, so now I'm just "Rei's wife" and "Ellie's Mama". I feel that I've lost a little of who I was in peoples eyes. Is that what growing is? I'm not sure really. I love being who I am now, but I loved who I was before, and I still feel I am the person I was pre-baby, but maybe that part of me is lying a little dormant for now.

The most amazing thing about motherhood for me is the awesome friends I've made since becoming a Mum. I always heard that people became less social after a baby, and I worried that if that were true then I was pretty much going to be a total recluse afterward, considering how socially inept I was before Ellie. It's actually been the total opposite for me. I joined a mothers group and I have become friends with the most wonderful group of women and their bubs. We're all so diverse, but we just seem to mesh so well together. 

I am very happy with how life has changed for me in the last 14 months in general. Life is very wonderful, and I am very blessed to be where I am.

A little kindness

A couple of weeks ago I created an event on Facebook called 'A Little Kindness'. The basic idea is that for a week we give some love back to the world by spending the first six days doing one good deed and sharing one kind word with someone else, and one the seventh day give one good deed and one kind word to yourself. The idea sprung from my love of Ellie, and how much I want a better, kinder world for her to grow up in.
I invited my friends. They invited their friends, and now, on the first day of the week we have almost 200 people injecting some love back into the world and sharing stories of things they have done.
I have the warm fuzzies in such a huge way! I honestly thought people would be uninterested, or just join and not actually do anything, but it's only 11:12am, and there are posts already!
If you are interested in joining, please click the link below.

A Little Kindness on Facebook

Faith in humanity - Restored!

Okay, seriously now...

I am going to start using this thing, damnit. The internet needs me! I always start these things with very good intentions, but now follow through. I must admit, I have been using my other blog some, but I think the world may prefer my more light hearted side that has less talk about ovaries, periods and general icky girl stuff.

So this post occurs a bit over a month after Ellie's 1st birthday (which we had a Mad Hatters Tea Party for, and let me tell you, it was awesome!). It's amazing watching her grow and learn. The latest favourite thing to do is to hug things and say "Awwww!". The "Awww!" is also exclaimed when patting the animals and brushing her hair.

The playroom is almost ready to go. It's been a work in progress for the last couple of months, and now all it needs is some paint (we're going with blue and sponging on some clouds, and then painting on a chalkboard up one wall), some cute light fittings and some toy boxes. And then we'll fill it with all her toys and it will look constantly like an atomic bomb testing area, rather than the beautiful room I had in mind. I'm sure that she'll love it though. And I'll have somewhere brand new to keep tidy.

If you follow my other blog, you'll also know that we are trying to conceive another baby, but as yet, no success. I'm telling myself that it will happen by the end of the year. Optimism is fun, although some days it leaves me wanting to beat my head against a wall. We did get a new bed this last week though, so now we have somewhere fun to make a baby. Hooray! Once the smell of memory foam off gas clears, I'm sure the bedroom will have a wonderful, romantic feel to it.

Also in the works is a veggie garden and some chooks for our backyard. Heaven knows we have the space for them, and there's something a bit special about picking your own vegetables and cooking with them. It will also be a great thing for Ellie to learn about. Plus, chickens are kinda cute, especially those fluffy ones.