Miranda You appear to be making all the right choices in life. I will be a little bit presumptuous by offering some advice on helping you to raise your child in touch with nature in this age full of all the electronic lures that keep the kids indoors. or, when outdoors, glued to a small screen, rather than the glory that surrounds them. I am writing a book about landscape architecture and have a section regarding the importance of embracing nature in the preschool years. - which I would like to forward that section to you. However, my computer skills are limited to email and US Mail. I don't even know how to attach a picture to the text. If you would like to receive this draft from my future book, send me your email or postal address, and I'll get it right off to you. My email is cascio.offsite@gmail.com Good luck with your new challenges and opportunities. Joe Cascio

Too cute. Hey, she's preggo. I love them.

I have been the reigning dessert queen in my family since a teenager. My mum always lamented that she didn't get the baking gene - it skipped a generation and went from my Grandma to me: my cakes and scones would rise perfectly each time, whereas hers quite often fell flat. Unfortunately, my mother's beautiful singing voice and artistic talent completely skipped over me. My four boys love it when I bake, although blending working full time and parenting and a house with a lot of work to do, does limit the time to bake. A good quality mixmaster is one of the key baking accessories for a lot of baking...but not for scones!!!

Could you do with out a laundry sink? If you make the bathroom sink deep enough and the bench overly wide they could do double duty. So you would have sink and bench next to a cupboard that hold the stacked washer and dryer. If you have a front loaded washer you can put a bench inside the cupboard to make extra work space. If the bathroom vanity cabinetry and bench top are the same as the laundry cupboard it will add symmetry. Fill up your mop bucket in the shower (better for your back anyway) or a funky pull out tap could work. It should reduce the amount of space for your laundry/bathroom and give you more space to rearrange what you need for your pantry. I don’t like some of the styles in the photos but it gives you some ideas about sink and bench sizes. I understand though if you would prefer a seperate sink for the bathroom and laundry.