Sunday 21 April 2013

Stills - a beautiful week









  
               1. Making - more bibs to match his cowboy doll
               2. Enjoying the last of the summer roses
               3. Lavender, silver teapots and roses
               4. Mollie Makes - Favourite magazine right there
               5. Lavender and old bottles
               6. Rosemary and a beautiful thank you from one of my favourite sellers
               7. More roses.... 
               8. A beautiful memory... this week I wrote my birth story... such a precious night    


Joining in with the lovely Em from the Beetleshack                                                    

Wednesday 17 April 2013

~ a birth story ~

We were thrilled to have Tim's sister Alice agree to take the photos for us... I regret that I don't have this precious memory for all my births - Thanks Alice!

Soooo...Its been three and a half months since this amazing night and its taken me this long to write about it! 

Theodore's birth was unlike any of my other births... I was quietly terrified leading up to it too -  I had quick and relatively easy births with the last four but having a six year gap made me worry! Would my body have 'rebooted' itself after this amount of time and think it needed much longer?? EEEeek.. could I handle it if that was the case???

I read a lot of books to get my head into the right space.. Ina May was a firm favourite! I spent a lot of time in prayer... memorizing and writing out scriptures that had given me peace and comfort during hard times... asking friends to pray.... talking to myself (as opposed to listening to myself) whenever fear would take hold of my heart.

I had to cope with strong contractions from about 24 weeks which were sometimes painful enough to take my breath away... I had the same thing with Finn (maybe its my body's way of telling me enough is enough!) so I wasn't worried about them they were just a big hassle and made my days even more tiring!
I woke on the Friday (one week overdue!) and I was concerned after an hour or so when I realized he hadn't moved at all... I jiggled my tummy around and had a glass of really cold water and did all those things that usually help get baby moving but nothing worked.. my tummy would kind of just flop wherever I moved it... I panicked at this stage as my old enemy fear began to have a field day with my heart! 
I rang my midwife and arranged to meet her at the hospital asap.... Tim had already left for work so I was super thankful to have a 14 year old in the house and just ran out the door leaving her to deal with her brothers!! 
My heartbeat calmed as I drove and I started to feel small movements - all the excitement must have woken him from deep sleep!! 
I was hooked up to the old heartbeat moniter up at the hospital and Paula (my dear friend and wonderful midwife who has now delivered all 6 of my babies!) confirmed everything was fine... however over the course of an hour on that machine she discovered I was having strong contractions all exactly 5 minutes apart! Woohoooo.... I was so used to having contractions I hadnt even noticed!  She arranged to come over at 4pm later that day and see how we were - totally sure that I would be in labour and ready to have a baby!
Well... those contractions stayed with me all day... no stronger or closer together.. 4pm came and went and Paula and I set up our home all ready for a birthin'. I was like a cat on hot bricks and I quietly asked her to see if I had started dilating... I have no self-control... My plan had been to have absolutely no intervention but I couldn't help myself! I needed to know where things stood!! I was thrilled to find out I was 4cm... YAHOOOO... nearly halfway and it had been no work at all!! Maybe this would be nice and quick and not too painful!! She went home leaving all her gear at our place and told me she would be back at 8 30pm... things would surely be underway by then! 
but no....
nothing changed...
The contractions did get a little stronger but no closer together and not strong enough to really be doing anything... 
I told her not to bother coming over yet...
...we put the boys to bed in the lounge at the other end of the house and told them there would be a baby waiting to meet them when they woke in the morning! 
... and we waited... 
and waited...
and kept waiting till about 11pm when my dear husband decided he was over this and got the kids scooters out!! We scooter ed up and down the road close to midnight laughing like a couple of crazy hyenas!! 
no change.
I went to bed feeling very sorry for myself! 
I lay down and tried to rest when all of a sudden I felt this 'ping'... What!?! My waters broke! In all 5 of my other labours I had never had this happen and had always wanted to know how it felt! Woohoooo....Finally! Things were happening!
and happen they did!!
I stood up and made my way to the loo and had an almighty contraction! Oh yeah... thats right.. this is what labour feels like!! Deep breaths... 
I rang Paula at 12 15 and she arrived 15 minutes later by which time things were well underway... wonderful, powerful, strong contractions - I found my rhythm and I laugh now looking back at the photos... I never moved from my spot beside my bed the whole time.... desperately wanting to sink into the warm water in my bathroom but unable to move the 10 steps to get there!
At 1 15 the second midwife arrived and I was moving into transition... I had never met her before and was a bit worried about a stranger in my 'space' during my labour but she was just lovely... her beautiful Scottish accent and sense of humour was perfect.. thank you Clare... 
I had to let go of so many plans and dreams during this labour... I wanted a water birth and I wanted to deliver him myself but my body did not allow this to happen... I needed to be on the bed in the end as things didn't progress from this point quite how I would have liked...
I reached 10cm and everything basically stopped... I had one contraction in about 15 minutes and in the end I just had to push him out even though I had no urge to do so at all! None! It was the strangest feeling... I needed all the help I could get from the midwife and it took everything I had in me to do it...
(That's what happens when you have a 9lb 8oz baby and you are a short little thing like me! I don't think my body was designed to have giant babies!!)

.... Theodore Beau Phillip Robinson arrived at 2 11am on Saturday the 5th of January 2013.... Huge and perfect!

I was in established labour for just under 2 hours...God answered my prayer for a quick labour once things really started but it was so frustrating waiting and waiting earlier on!

This was truly a wonderful, Christ centered birth... Tim prayed with me all the way through... he didn't leave my side (apart from a quick loo break!) and God was so faithful... He reminded me of all the scriptures I had memorized and brought them to mind whenever I stared to feel overwhelmed  I felt so much peace and security and our son was born into the most love filled room... it was incredibly precious.


~

p.s.... I think my most favourite memory of the whole night was when Clare said in her gorgeous Scottish accent - 'Now that's how you have a baby!!' ... (proud moment right there!!)

Sunday 14 April 2013

~ Tomato Kasandi ~


 I said I would give you this recipe....


so.... here it is!  It is pretty much the yummiest chutney/relish EVER!
a must try

You will need...

1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup mustard seeds
1/4 cup cumin seeds
200g minced ginger
100g crushed garlic
2.5kg tomatoes - chopped
450g sugar
2T tumeric
4T chilli powder 
(I used a couple of fresh ones)
500ml malt vinegar
2T ground coriander
3T salt


Heat the oil in a large pot and cook the mustard and cumin seeds.
Reduce the heat and add the rest of the ingredients and then simmer on a low heat for 1 1/2 hours.
Once cooked then blend together to get rid of any lumps of tomato etc and bottle into jars.

(If you have enough self control) then leave for at least 2 weeks before eating to allow the flavours to develop.

enjoy

xx

Stills - An Instagram Collection






         
           1. Beautiful Sunday picnic at the beach
           2. A 'Selfie' by Mollie
           3. Milky Kisses
           4. The Boys
           5. Best 'Thank You' card EVER!! - by the beautiful Dee and her tribe of five
           6. Mmmmm... divine Bay Espresso Coffee 
           7. Tomato Kasandi.  Oh baby... this is the best relish in the world! (Recipe to follow)


Joining in with Em from the BeetleShack

xx

Sunday 7 April 2013

Stills - a weekly collection









 


      
                                              1. Theodore
                                              2. Making: Stylie Dribble Bibs
                                              3. Vintage wooden tray, picked up on a recent trip to Melbourne
                                              4. Making: Infinity scarf out of gorgeous fabric
                                              5. Pebbles
                                              6. Making: Harvest pasta sauce
                                              7. Teddy boy with his doting sister (and other mother) 


Joining in with the lovely Em over at the BeetleShack 

Saturday 6 April 2013

~family fun in the (last of the summer) sun~


A few weekends ago we were fortunate enough to have a family friend and wonderful photographer follow us around on a Saturday afternoon and capture some memories... 
















Best family photo session EVER
love this lot
xx





Thursday 4 April 2013

A Bloggers Prayer...


As I  to decide exactly what to write  about - a timely reminder of Who I am actually writing for.... courtesy of Ann Voscamp

A PRAYER FOR BLOGGERS

I am no longer my own blogger, but Yours.
Refine me with each post how You will, rank me how You will.
Put me to service, put me to suffering.
Let me be a follower — instead of seeking followers
Let me post for You —  or be put aside for You,
Lifted high, only for You, or brought low, all for You.
Do with me and each post whatever You will, because You alone know best.
Let me not strive but submit

Let me not compete but care
Let me not desire hits but holiness
Let my blog be full of You, and let it be empty of me.
Let me crave all things of You, let me care nothing of this world.
Let my words be focus only on the greatest of audiences: You.
And You are enough.
May I write not for subscribers… but only for Your smile.

May my daily affirmation be in the surety of my atonement not the size of my audience.
May my identity be in the innumerable graces of Christ, never, God forbid, the numbers of my comments.
May the only words that matter in my life not be the ones I write on a screen — but the ones I live with my skin.
I freely and heartily yield every sentence, every title, every post, every comment… or no comments… all to Your pleasure and perfect will.
My only fame is that I bear your name
My only glory is the gift of Your Grace
My only readership, Your eyes that seek to and fro to find
Make this so. Lord…
Yahweh, you alone are my God, not Google
Jesus, you alone are my Savior, not sitemeters
And Holy Spirit, you alone are my Comforter, not comments
So be it, today, yesterday, and every post to come.
O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
This is my prayer I have made on earth, over this keyboard…
let it be ratified in heaven.
In Jesus’ Name…. Amen

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Weekly Stills








1.  Anemones. Enjoying jars full of my favourite flower all through the house as they have their brief but glorious moment in our garden.
2. Waterfall. We had the most wonderful Easter weekend with dear friends... a highlight was walking a beautiful bush walk that ended in....
3... another bigger gorgeous waterfall which our eldest son proceeded to jump off!! Lucky for him he had asked his dad and not me for permission!
4. Finn taking some much needed time out for a quiet read in everyone's favourite sunny reading spot.
5. Chocolate chip oatie cookies... Mmmmmm!

Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend... so nice to still have such summery weather to make it extra enjoyable!

Joining in for the first time with the lovely Emma from the Beetle Shack

xx

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Three Months






Our beautiful, scrumptious Teddy boy is already three months and is the happiest, giggliest, smiley baby. We love him to bits. 


xx


(Photos courtesy of Mollie)

Monday 1 April 2013

Easter with beautiful friends













We were very blessed to spend an amazing weekend with precious friends...
11 kids and 4 adults certainly made for a full house! 

Good times

xx