Do you remember way back when I posted about how we were going to renovate our house… this year?? I confess that I’d all but given up hope on anything even remotely renovation like actually starting this year.

Of course it all hinges on money, or lack there of… or actually the fact that most of it is tied up in the share market and really this isn’t the smartest time to be selling shares.

We could sell the shares and start tomorrow if we wanted to… and ooooh how I want to. I so badly want these renovations to happen, if it were up to my heart I’d sell the damn shares tomorrow and get our the sledge hammers. Thankfully.. it is not up to my heart. Despite the fact that I don’t really understand the share market, I do understand enough to know that it would be wiser to wait… just a little longer. My head agrees with the much smarter (when it comes to shares anyway) head of the Baldy Boy.. and so we wait.

What to do to stop from going nuts and crying all day because we have more children than bedrooms? I calm my jittery renovation cravings with lashing of house idea blogs.

Inspiration for Decoration one for inside and Inspiration for Outdoors for outside I just adore… mostly because they are just images. Photo after photo of interiors and gardens. Nothing wasted in words here… just glorious photos to drool over and bookmark and dream about. Both blogs belong to Jen from A Thousand Words which also has some lovely house inspiration posts among other great reads.

The Inspired Room is also a great read when looking for simple, doable, real home decoration ideas. Loads of great links there too.

And my secret house addiction…. checking out real people’s homes.

Desire to Inspire has wonderful sneak peaks inside real homes…. ok sure, most these homes obviously haven’t had two five year olds and a two year old living in them for at least the day it took to clean and pretty them all up… but they are still real. They have real things in them… they are actually used and lived in… not just staged to look pretty in a magazine but actually not liveable at all.

My poor evernote can barely cope with all the images of houses and ideas I cram into it… I’m probably never going to get to do even one tenth of the lovely things I find, but if I manage to use just a handful of the ideas when we eventually do get to renovate it will be well worth it.

Oh… and the latest estimated time of wall removal is October or November. I am not holding my breath though.

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What to do when you can’t renovate yet… is a post from: picklebums.com

Every now and then I like to see what life would be like if that pesky fertilised egg of mine had split into three instead of two….

Today having triplets was filled with a lot of giggling, a LOT of stickers and glue, some crackers, some tears from the small boy being shut out in the cold and of course, ponies.

Actually it was quite lovely… but then I did know that girl number three would be going home to give her own mother a hard time when it came to bath and bed. Mind you my two have been less than stellar since she left so I think I might try three again sometime soon.

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Triplets Anyone? is a post from: picklebums.com

It was the equinox on the weekend… That really clinched it in these here parts… No matter how much I try to deny it, summer has gone, it really is Autumn.

Just as all you bloggers on the other side of the earth are rejoicing in the return of the sun, I’ve begun to read several bloggers from this side of the globe revelling in ‘glorious autumn’.

Glorious my bum!

Why is it that so many people profess Autumn as their favourite season? What is wrong with you people? Are you all insane?? There is nothing glorious about Autumn.

Sure the searing, burn your skin off when you walk out the door, heat has mellowed a little. Sure it has rained some of late which is an entirely good thing all round. Sure the bush fire threat has eased. Sure there are all those pretty coloured leaves…. but those things do not compensate for the loss of Summer.

Good bye long summer evenings that stay warm enough for the kids to play outside until well past their bed time. Good bye late evening sunshine to water the garden by. Goodbye afternoons at the swimming pool, short shorts and summer dresses. Good bye cool night breezes that bring refreshing relief. Good bye home made icy poles. Good bye Sunflowers. Good bye bare feet, dragon flies and picking black berries.

Hello chilly nights and freezing mornings. Hello frozen toes. Hello mud. Hello unpredictable weather. Hello millipedes. Hello chopping wood and using way to much electricity. Hello bulky jackets and two pairs of socks. Hello frost.

Good bye Summer…
Hello Autumn….

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Autumn Shmautumn! is a post from: picklebums.com

This week’s Weekly Winners (bought to you by the fabulous Sarcastic Mom) is a little bit different to the usual…

I had wanted to do another way cool Picklebum’s Dance video for my Ultimate Blog Party Post… but technology and my tiny brain got the better of me on the that front. So I settled for a slide show of some of my favourite photos from the blog … but then lack of net speed (thanks to me finally getting some new digi scrap stuff in the store at PBP and using all our gigs to do it) meant it just wouldn’t upload late late Friday night….

So I’m posting the slide show today which makes this week’s Weekly Winners a year of winners… a collection of blog photos I really like!

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Weekly Winners – The Party Edition. is a post from: picklebums.com

I play along with Wordless Wednesday at Five Minutes for Mom – I’ll also be Blog Partying with them at the end of next week, if anyone is keen to join me!

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Wordless Wednesday – Bad Day. is a post from: picklebums.com

So this past week it has finally rained here… and gotten cold… and then today the sun came back. So we’ve been stuck inside, ventured outside for a moment to investigate the wet stuff falling from the sky, gone back inside and then come out again to play and check out what the rain has grown in the garden…. and so here is our week in a couple of photos…

raindrops on gates….

Anyone for tea?

A face only a mother could love!

Loving me some nasturtiums

Do you see how much pollen that little guy is packing???

Now choof on over to Sarcastic Mom and check out some more weekly winners.

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Weekly Winners – The Sun and Rain Edition. is a post from: picklebums.com

In honour of Valentines day, which we don’t really celebrate on the pickle farm but it seemed like a good reminder to remember all the wonderful things I am loving right now…

Painting with cheap water colours
Sunflowers
Twitter
This blog, this blog and this blog.
Zucchini and Pineapple Muffins
Watching the Twinadoes Tap Dance
Dreaming about our renovations
Spending time at the parental’s
Listening to the Small Boy tell us what a bum says…
Friends, those far away and those just up the road.
Dancing to music like this
Sunshine.
Bare Feet
and of course my family…. all of them… even when they drive me nuts.

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Things I Love… is a post from: picklebums.com

It’s been a long time since we had a rooster. After Red the Randy Rooster met his fate with his second round bout with Foxy Loxy a couple of years back we just never replaced him. Late Sunday night Ma Pickle’s Home for Wayward Hens opened it’s door (well wire gate) to welcome a male into the coop. A young Wyandotte rooster is now settling in among the hens.

He is just gorgeous. So regal looking and such gorgeous colours, his black feathers have a real green sheen to them that you can’t see in the photo. He should grow into one spunky looking rooster!

He’s having a few issues settling in. He’s being hassled a little by our old Isa Hen who thinks she is a rooster. She simply refuses to acknowledge that he is a boy chook and she, as a girl chook, has no place mounting the other hens and bossing him around. I mean I am all for women’s rights and all that, but it just doesn’t work like that in the chook world. The Rooster is still young, so I think it will take him a little while to assert his dominance over all the hens, but I think he’ll manage. Hopefully one day he’ll be the proud father of several little chicks!

Right now though, he has made friends with Cupcake (the limping bantam, though her limp is almost gone), which is good. To have the rooster on your side is a very good thing if you are the smallest hen at the bottom of the pile. He’s not crowing yet, but he is trying very hard. When he attempts a crow he sounds a little like a strangled cat, but once he nails it I think he’ll make sure everyone knows he is top dog… er.. I mean chook.

So names…. We are attempting to implement a new naming rule – if you buy the chook you buy naming rights. Since my mother-in-law was the one who found this lovely Rooster at auction on the weekend, she got first dibs on names and has called him Sultan. I tried to convince the girls what a good name that was, Sultan… Sully for short but they are having nothing of it. Izzy calls him Arty and Zoe calls him Handsome King. So it seems his name is Sultan Arty Handsome King – Sahk??

We’ve still not decided on names for the other new arrivals. So far the suggestions are –
For the two Big Reds –
Bluey and Big Red
Agnes and Bertha

For the two Fluff heads -
Creme Brulee and Hokey Pokey
Blondie and Rosie

Some general name suggestions –
Henny Penny
Bok Bok
Bom chicka wah wah
Casserole
Schnitzel
Sunday Roast
Chocotop
Combie
Hennah
Lickingood.

So far the twinadoes have no approved of any of these names, but I quite like Agnes and Bertha and we’ve started to call the other two ‘Fluff ‘ead 1 and Fluff ‘ead 2′ …. so definitely keep the name suggestions coming!

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A Male in our Midst is a post from: picklebums.com

The very generous government of ours decided it really did owe me money that it had previously decided I was not going to get when it first looked at the number of children I had and how much my hard working husband earned. I was pretty sure when it was all tallied up in the end that I’d get a little family tax benefit back because I’d made certain that I’d over estimated a bit so as not to get a nasty surprise at tax time and find I owed the government money… but in actual fact, when all was said and done, they owed me quite a tidy little sum!

So I have been sitting here with the cheque pinned to my notice board (I put it in the back yesterday dear husband you can stop stressing) and dreaming about what I might do with this little surprise bonus! A large chunk of it is ear marked for a new couch when our renovations are done. A leather couch that the wee just wipes right off, and one with cushions that are attached! Ah couch love… nice…. but there will be a little bit left over just to spend. Yes… money with no agenda… now doesn’t that make me dream!

I am not particularly good at spending money…. I either can’t part with my hard won cash because I am not 1000% certain that the item I am about to buy is perfect in every way…. or I rush in and buy something and it ends up not being right…. hence why I have that first problem. But dreaming about spending money, writing lists of things I’d want, now that I am good at.

So here… for your snoring… ahem.. I mean reading pleasure, is a list of things I may or may not spend some or all of my tax money on. Do feel free to chime in with your opinions and suggestions, tell me I am mental for wanting x, y or z or point me in the right direction to where I can purchase the perfect t, u or w….

*A natural shampoo bar and some kind of natural conditioner so I can ditch the nasty chemical stuff.
*Some kind of fancy and good eczema cream for Muski
*Non-allergenic and hopefully no chemical sun cream for the kids
*new hats and sunglasses for all three kids
*new jeans shorts or 3/4 jeans
*A hat for me that I might actually look decent in
*Cool T-shirts for everyone
*A new wet/dry electric shaver
*A good, warm, polar fleece jacket
*A nice summer cardigan
*herb seedlings and a heck of a lot of mulch for the garden
*summer shoes – do I dare to do the Crocs thing? Or maybe Birks?
*more glass storage so we can ditch all our kitchen plastic
*non-nasty-plastic drink bottles for the kids
*cool lunch boxes of insulated lunch bags for the girls
*A bigger tent and some camping equipment

Ok so there you have it.. stuff I want right now…. So what are you lusting after right now? Please let me know what I have left off my list!!!

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Want! Want! Want! is a post from: picklebums.com

For a while there I stopped writing in my note book each day/night. I was busy (I know poor excuse, I should be keeping track of things more rather than less when busy), I couldn’t be bothered and I was uninspired. The other week two things happened to change that and make me start writing again.

1) A friend dragged me into Borders with her 15% off coupon which encouraged me to buy a really cool new note book. I didn’t need a new note book, but last time I was there looking for one they had nothing that was right and I ended up buying on that had plain black covers. Boring and totally uninspiring when it comes to picking it up and using it. This time there were heaps of groovy paper chase notebooks to choose from and I love love love my read babushka dolls…. yeah ok I know it’s odd but having a groovy notebook really makes me use it more.

2) I discovered Simple Mom. I must be the last person in the world to discover this blog and it’s great! Lots of down to earth, practical, doable ideas to keep your head above water when it comes to running a house and being a parent and all that kind of stuff.

She also has a great household management system. Ages ago I talked about a household folder but I have decided that I can’t cope with too much strict routine so your typical household folder with schedules etc is just not for me. I have a nice folder of recipes now so the idea wasn’t a total bust, but I was still lacking a simple way to keep track of ‘stuff’. Simple Mom’s ‘Daily Dockets’ (if you follow this link you can find all of her home management downloads), now there is an idea that could work for me. I’ve taken bits and pieces from her Daily Docket and incorporated them into my daily lists. I don’t use a specific form, I just write at the end of each day the things I have to remember and do for the next day.

I also first read about the ‘Get Things Done’ idea on her blog and really really REALLY like the idea of writing stuff down just to get it all out of your head. That is totally me, and that is what I use my note books for, a lot!

One other thing that I am trying to pop in my notebook now and then is a happy list. Just a quick list of things that have made me happy that day or week. Trying to live more in the here and now and that tends to keep me a bit grounded and reminds me of all the good I have, especially when things are crazy or not going as perfectly as I’d like.

So while I may never be ultra organised, I have discovered that if I can find myself a groovy looking notebook I can at least be semi organised, sometimes…. maybe… if I remember to actually read the lists I make!

In other news – thanks so much for all the comments on the kitchen renovation. It seems you are all keen on drawers rather than cupboards, which I have to agree with and will be trying to fit in as many of them as possible. I am also keen on a bench/breakfast bar arrangement as I can see the value of a place for the kids to eat/play/work while I am cooking etc. We are still waiting for the first draft plans to come back from the architect and then we’ll have to start really looking into kitchen design – once we know exactly what space we have to put it in. So I’m sure to be back with more questions soon… plus we still have two bathrooms, a study, family/lounge room and a master bedroom to design!

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Organise ’08 – My Note Book is a post from: picklebums.com