Workspace | Work in Progress

This is basically what my workspace looks like every time I get into a project.

Since the end of January, I've been spending all my free time playing catch-up with Project Life. I like to work with all my supplies within reach (and I've got short arms) so that leaves me with very little actual working space. I can't wait until I finish up those albums. Then I'll be able to clean up this workspace so it's fresh and ready for the next project.

Finally Back

We've been back for a couple weeks now but it wasn't until this morning I finally felt comfortable in our home again. Perhaps part of that was due to the added excitement of the Canadian Men's Hockey team winning gold, and celebrating that with our Canadian friends in our home the night before.

Finally, it didn't feel like we were still settling in. Yes, I still have piles of clothes we've brought back that don't quite fit into any of the drawers or closets. We'll find space for those eventually. But I was baking again. Caleb was happy to entertain himself and chatter with our family over FaceTime while I made banana chocolate chip muffins and scones.

Then, completely inspired by a walk through a gorgeous shop in West End and visiting my friend in her beautiful home over the weekend, I finally washed the blanket Andrew's parents bought for us in Mexico and laid it out in our reading room. It changes the whole look of the room and the texture is much softer and inviting than the carpet underneath.

Even in our fourth (and possibly final) year here in Brisbane, I'm just starting to build our home and it is so much fun!

Our Pet Plant

Last year, when we started leaving our patio doors open, we joked about getting a venus fly trap to take care of the flies that found their way into our apartment.

Actually, we tried to look for one at the markets but no one had any.

We also found a different solution: the cricket bat.

Now that we're living in a house with more open space, it's harder to corner a fly with the cricket bat, so when we were at the Eumundi markets and saw venus fly traps for sale, we bought one.

We were a little disappointed to find that it hadn't caught anything for the past week. I guess it wasn't its fault; we haven't had many flies in the house lately.

A little worried for its health, I moved it outside where it would have more opportunities to catch something to eat.

But still, nothing.

So when I saw a giant ant wandering around our front door today, I called for Nathan and asked him to catch it. I was half joking and wasn't really expecting Nathan to do it, but he did!

And without me knowing, he fed it to the fly trap. I only found out when I heard him yell, "whoa, that scared me!" when the trap closed on the ant.

By the time I got to them, this is what I saw.

I was a little disappointed that I missed seeing the trap close! I'll be sure to hang around to watch next time.

We Bought A Piano

When we moved to Brisbane, I knew Andrew missed playing piano, but there wasn't enough space in our condo for one, and not to mention sound would travel so quickly through the uninsulated walls and we'd probably get complaints daily.

Plus, living on a student budget with zero income, it just really wasn't high on our priority list as we were getting settled. Things like a refrigerator and a washing machine were a little more important and a piano was simply a luxury we couldn't afford.

But when we moved to a bigger house, we had plenty of space.

So when Andrew was sleeping at night, I would search for pianos on Gumtree and send him ads that I thought sounded reasonable.

A few months later, somehow we decided to take the next step and actually check out one of the pianos we found.

We went to take a look at it after Nathan's birthday party, and on the way there, I realized how unprepared we were. We had no idea how to inspect a used piano, or how to tell its value. So I quickly consulted Google for some tips.

As Andrew tested out the piano, I learned about the piano's history and how it was maintained over the years.

From what I was told, the lady researched extensively before she finally chose this piano for her children, and it sounded like she really wanted to find the piano a good home where it would be appreciated and used. One thing was for sure: it sounded beautiful.

So after a brief discussion with Andrew, we decided to take it.

On our way home though, I wasn't feeling completely settled.

Did we rush into the decision? (Maybe.)
Did we make the right choice? (I hope so.)
We didn't know what the proper value of the piano was, or if there were internal damages or wearing that would render the piano a "$650 pile of firewood" as one of the websites so eloquently put it.
Should we have asked to see it again with a technician?

In the end, we decided to stick with our decision and follow through with the purchase, and pray that it would all work out well.

The piano arrived tonight and let me tell you, all three of the boys were super excited to play on it.

I'm excited because I'll get to hear Andrew play (hopefully, regularly) again.

Also, now we finally have somewhere to display some family photos! Is it weird that this is something I'm really excited about?

Atop Popcorn Clouds

We inherited some IKEA mattresses last week and we finally got around to putting one down in the boys' playroom over the weekend.


Now they have something soft and comfy to sit on.


And jump around and be silly on.


They were super excited to get this new addition to their playroom.


I have a feeling Andrew might appreciate it as well, when he's in there watching Caleb...

A Place To Call Our Own

With our last rental, I got trapped into thinking that just because we are a student family living on zero income and just because we are renting with the likelihood of moving back to Canada at the end of Andrew's training, we should spend as little as possible on our home.

The thing is, last time around, our apartment didn't feel like a home. (It felt like living in prison. However, decor may not have been the only contributing factor to that, but I digress.) And because it didn't feel like a home, I spent the entire year floating around, refusing to put my roots down because in four years, I'm probably not going to be here anymore anyway.

But four years is a long time. And it took me a whole year of living uncomfortably and two very smart ladies to tell me that one morning.

So this time around, I've decided to make our home feel more like our home.

I'm not saying that I'll have this place decked out floor to ceiling, or even have everything we want to have. We'll get just enough to make living comfortable. Most of our furniture was either from IKEA or on sale, and I'm okay with that.

But I'm going to put a little more effort into adding little personal touches to make this space reflect us a little better.

You can bet I'll be doing a lot of little projects in the weeks to come and I'll be sharing them here.

Now, where do you look for decorating inspiration?

Good Move

We're finally done with our old place for good.

After Andrew finished class today, he met us at our old apartment to give it one final clean. We all pitched in: Andrew held Caleb and kept him entertained while trying to supervise Nathan, who was vacuuming and mopping (or at least, that's what he said). I was stuck in the showers trying the scrub off all the soap scum. After about two hours of scrubbing, I had enough so I finished the mop job and we called it a day.


We celebrated by having lunch at Grill'd. Caleb even got his very own mini me pack.


Then, as an extra treat, we all got ice cream as well.


Oh, and before we left, while Andrew was walking around the balcony, I happened to look up and saw this new tenant who had moved in after we left.


See him?

I'm so incredibly glad we left when we did.

Moved In

We finally have temporary internet set up so I can write a quick post!


Thanks to some of the same friends who got us all set up at our last place a year ago along with some of our newer friends, we moved into our new place this past weekend.

We picked up our keys early so we could show it to Andrew's parents before they left. Thankfully, they liked it.

Then, for the next two days we made trips back and forth, moving all the smaller boxes and bags. On Saturday, our friends showed up to help move the remaining small things, dismantle all our furniture for the movers and put them all back together (and in the right rooms) at the new place.

I must say, we have the most efficient and handy friends around.

They're awesome.

One of them was extra awesome because it was his birthday and he came along to help us move anyway!


And of course we had a helpful little guy keeping an eye on things for us.


Telling us where things go.


And making sure no one was slacking off.

House Hunting in Heat

Today was only our second day house-hunting and I already want to give up.

It's extremely exhausting driving around to different parts of town to do tours of houses and apartments. Even more so in the extreme heat.

Today, it got to us.

By early afternoon, we all had headaches and Caleb threw up all over me 8 times while Andrew went out to do another inspection. I bet it was the heat, so I kept Caleb home with me while Andrew went to pick up Nathan and do a final inspection for the day.

Luckily, we were all feeling much better by dinner time and Caleb was back to his old self after dinner.


Also, we finally moved the boys back into their room today!


After a month of Nathan sleeping on the couch in the living room and having Caleb's crib take up a huge chunk of our bedroom, things are back to normal.


And of course, Andrew has to go ahead and remind me that the boys will only be in that room for another few weeks, then we'll have to move again.

Excuse me while I go cry in a corner.

Weekend Furniture Haul and Prayer Request

When moving to Australia, we figured we'd bring as little as we could and live on the bare minimum. I realize some people are able to do that, but to me that's not really living. It's surviving and we're only meant to be in survival mode for a little while before it starts getting taxing.

So this past weekend, we went to IKEA and other home furnishing stores to buy a few more pieces of furniture to help make our place feel a little more like home.

When we got home, we spent a long time cleaning our balcony and putting some of the furniture together.

Now, we have a place to sit on our balcony! I'm so excited about this because one of the reasons I don't spend more time on the balcony is that I get so tired from standing and holding Caleb all the time. With a bench for us to rest on, we'll definitely be getting more fresh air.


It would have probably looked much better had we taken this during the day, but I couldn't wait. I love the pillows we found. They're so pouffy and bright! And only $13 each!

And ever since we arrived, we wanted a table for Nathan. We had a hard time finding one we liked and the only solid one at IKEA was a little more than we wanted to spend. Until this weekend. It had been put on clearance for half price so we snatched it up along with a few chairs for when Nathan has friends over.


Caleb wanted in on the action.


And the last piece we have for now is this chair for Nathan. We wanted to get the adult-sized one but couldn't justify the price. But this little chair was reasonable enough and since Nathan's reading a lot more now, we thought it would be nice for him to have a spot to sit.


He's absolutely in love with this chair. He's so lucky I can't fit into it, or we'd be fighting over it all the time.

* * * * * * * * * *
Please pray for the pastor of our new church and his family.

Pastor Ben's wife, Faith, had an emergency c-section yesterday and delivered their baby girl at 31 weeks. Baby Abigail has hydrops fetalis and is listed in critical condition with a very uncertain prognosis.

So you can pray more effectively, here are Pastor Ben's updates:

Update #1
Update #2
Update #3