Am I mad???!!

We were discussing the options re schooling last night including Grammar (worked out we could afford it if we wanted to, but what on earth can a kindy teach that costs $4000 pa??!), the local Steiner school (I like a lot of their philosophies but with both of us being computer people, the non-use of computers & technology at any early age doesn't sit well - he already sends family emails unassisted!), local public schools etc. Then Pete completely broadsided me by suggesting homeschooling. We've both had a lot of exposure to homeschooling as my sister homeschools her 2 girls, but I thought he was very much against it. Turns out he thinks it would work well for Billy.

The more we discussed it and thought about it, the more appealing it sounded to me in many ways (my sister will be laughing hysterically by now as I have always said I'd never do it). However the big stopping point for me is (cue bad 80s soundtrack) - "What about me??" Can I do it? I know I'd be able to do from an academic etc standpoint, but what about the fact of being with him 24/7? What about my need for peace & quiet? Would I have the patience to teach him & correct him? What about my business that I've been building up ready for him to go to school? Would I still be able to continue that? They sound incredibly selfish written down like that but that's what I'm feeling. It looks like I'll have lots of soul searching to do (as well as lots of research) before I make a commitment.

I'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts about it.

Kindy interview

We had our interview today at the Catholic primary school we were hoping to get Billy into next year for kindergarten. We knew places were limited but it wasn't until we got there that we found out just *how* limited they are.. After they take siblings of existing students, they only have a few places left. One of the few questions they asked us in the 10 minute interview was "are you involved in the parish?" and as we had to answer no, I don't like our chances of us being one of the "chosen few".. Our next choice school we were told in the interview was also in the same situation, and we were advised to look at 2 other schools. One quite frankly isn't in a good area & doesn't have a good reputation (and yes, I fully acknowledge that I am a snob lol), and the other is 30 mins away which is an hour's round trip twice a day.. Other than that we may have to look at public or non-Catholic schools. There is a very good Grammar school but there is no way we can afford that kind of money. I'm not sure what the public schools are like as we've always assumed we'd send him to a Catholic school like we attended.. Some hard thinking ahead...

Working Mum's guilt

I'm sure there's not a working mum out there who hasn't packed their kid off to daycare / preschool / school etc knowing they weren't quite 100% well but not able to do much about it. (And if there are, I don't think I want to know, as I feel badly enough already lol). I faced that today - Billy still had a cold & was a bit whingy but I had to go and train - it's very hard to call in sick when you're the teacher!

And sure enough at 3pm I got the call from preschool - "Billy's just woken up with a temperature of 38, do we have your permission to give him Panadol?"... Luckily I'd finished for the day and was on the way home, so was able to pick him up quite soon after and bring him home. BTW he seems fine apart from running a temp - eating, running around etc, so who knows! Pete has arranged to stay home with him tomorrow though, just in case.

Cold!!!

It's cold this morning - got down to -1 overnight (yeah I know many of you are probably thinking "that's not cold" lol, but it is for us!) Luckily I didn't find that out until after I'd dragged myself out of my warm bed to make Pete's lunch. I must say the walkers all looked miserable this morning in the pre-sun-up trip to the station!

Speaking of cold - Billy's cold seems to be on the improve, but now he's reacting (behaviour-wise) to the panadol I used to get his temp down, and he is not a nice child to be around atm! Tantrums, crying, cheekiness - could be a long day! Plus, he's given his cold to me - I wonder if lying around looking pathetic all day will work for me??! Somehow I doubt it :)

Yesterday we went to the Gresford Markets to check them out. Gresford is a little village about 25mins drive from here. I love the drive around that area, it's so pretty. When I was younger, we used to go on guide camps in that area and I have some wonderful memories of it. We hadn't been to the Gresford Markets before and I was expecting (or rather hoping) for a farmer's markets, but it was mainly a craft & handiwork markets. Lots of lovely handmade items - soaps, cards, angora scarfs, clothing etc. There were a few stalls with food, but mainly the pickles & jam variety. It was quite a pleasant time wandering around anyway.

We ended up buying the ubiquitous sausage sandwich as we left and called in to Paterson Park for a picnic lunch and play.

When we got home I did a bit in the garden (hopefully the strawberries I planted went ok in the cold!).

We're staying home for a "pyjama day" today - a day where we don't have any plans and can just lounge around in our pyjamas if we want. I'm starting to stress about the amount of work I have to do again, so I need to write some lists and get some times organised.

Right, now time for some breakfast I think!

Baking binge!

I've been on a baking binge this afternoon as the sweet treats in the freezer were dangerously low :)


I'm running out of oil & butter so have been searching for alternatives. I've made:


* coconut choc-chip slice - a yummy 'cakey' type slice with no butter or oil. I substituted sultanas for the choc-chips. (I've made this before - it's very more-ish!)

* low-fat orange muffins - used up the rest of the vanilla yoghurt in the fridge. (new recipe - a bit dry because it's low fat but not bad. Would go well with poppyseeds if I had any!)

* muesli bars - with oats, weetbix, rice-bubbles, sultanas and condensed milk.


I also made up some 'magic cordial', cooked a baked dinner for tonight and a loaf of sourdough. I took some photos but the camera is still playing up and they're all blurry :(


This was the first time I think that I kept the sink filled with hot water & washed up as I went - it made a huge difference.



Billy woke up at 5am this morning coughing and was then sick (*sigh* sheets to wash), and was then sick again about 6am - he's been ok ever since so I think it was due to his cold & gunk down his throat while he was sleeping. He slept on my lap much of the morning so not much got achieved then (other than making my baby feel secure & loved of course!)

Sick boy..

Yep I was right - he was coming down with something. I think it's *just* a cold, but he's running a temp as well, so pretty miserable with it. And he's male, so it's FAR worse than it would normally be lol. It was a shocking night last night - I was up to him every couple of hours, so I'm tired!

We ended up going to watch the juggler at the library ($5 school holiday activity) as he was so devastated that he might miss it. Billy's really into magic and juggling etc atm - the guy was great, fantastic juggler, magician, unicyclist, balloon animal maker etc etc, really good with the kids, and a few adult asides as well. I even enjoyed it. (Yes Libby - I actually had FUN watching it!). We ended up cancelling lunch & the play date though so JH didn't catch his germs as well. They can catch up another time. (The good news is I cleaned the house in anticipation of them coming anyway lol).

So the afternoon was pretty much spent with him watching a DVD and sleeping on my arm. I didn't get much done - I managed to finish the book I was reading though and bawled my way through the last chapters.

It was "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. The basic premise is a "normal" family - daughter Kate is diagnosed with leukaemia as a toddler, so the parents decide to have a child "engineered" to be a match for her. Anna is born and the cord blood is used for Kate. Fast forward 13 years and many relapses for Kate with Anna being the donor each time - first blood, then bone marrow. Kate is now suffering kidney failure and her only possible chance is Anna donating a kidney. But Anna decides to seek "medical emancipation" from her parents so that she's not forced to do it. I didn't know how I'd go reading it, knowing the basic story line, but it's "un-put-down-able". The ending is just so unexpected that I'm still reeling from it. A definite thumbs-up, and you can't help but give your own kid(s) an extra cuddle...

I've got my sourdough starter out of the fridge making the "sponge" ready to do my first test loaf tomorrow.. If it turns out, I'll take some photos!

A rather unsuccessful day..

Not the best day today..

I had to go and see a client and install some changes I'd made for them. Drove to Newcastle, found someone who knew the password to get onto their machine, and installed the changes. Due to their data being different to the test data I had, I found one change wasn't quite right so had to do an 'on-the-fly' change. Then found one report that just doesn't work on their machine although it works fine on my machine. So I played around with that for a while, but wasn't able to solve it. So I've had to take a copy of their data and will try to solve it here. Which means another trip down to Newcastle.

So I was late leaving there, and had to rush and go and see another client. I'm trying to get their network working for them - I now have 3 of the 4 computers talking to each other, but just couldn't get the 4th talking :( I had to leave there (running late again) and go and pick up Billy from preschool and Pete from the train.

That was 2 jobs I was hoping to have marked as completed today, but have to go back and finish off... Then to top things off, Billy came home from preschool, was really lethargic and fell asleep on the lounge. He's a bit warm, not too hot, but I've given him a homeopathic cold lollipop in the hope that it will ward off any lurgies.. Hopefully he's just tired and not coming down with something. We're supposed to be meeting friends at the library & for lunch tomorrow..

There is some hope though..

Well I used the timer today (after I figured out which buttons to push!) and had a short shower - I can't say I *enjoyed* the experience but I have to admit there was a certain adrenaline rush in beating the timer lol.

Just so you don't think I'm a complete slacker, here are some things that I *do* do:

* clean our teeth with a mug of water

* have a bucket in the shower and collect the water while waiting for the shower to heat - this is then used to flush the toilet (most of the time)

* collect the kitchen tap water in a jug when waiting for it to heat - this is used in the water filter

* use any "dregs" of water left in glasses & drink bottles on the garden

* use Billy's bathwater to flush toilets (most of the time)

* only run the dishwasher & washing machine when full

I'm sure there's more - but most of these are starting to be habits by now which is good.

I'm also quite proud of myself for not getting the heater out for the loungeroom yet this winter - I am a real "cold frog". I use a small fan heater in the bathroom while Billy is having his bath, and turn an oil heater on in his room for about 30 mins before bed to take the chill out, but that's it. My aunt gave me a wonderful lightweight polar fleece blanket (with cute cats on it) for my b'day last year which is keeping me wonderfully toasty warm in the loungeroom, along with my uggies of course!

True confessions

Well I have to admit it - I LOVE a nice, long, hot shower... Especially in winter! It's my thinking time, my 'alone-as-possible-with-a-4-yo-coming-in-talking-to-me' time.. I've tried several times to cut them down - I had my kitchen timer in the bathroom for a while until it disappeared, I tried setting the alarm on my mobile phone and leaving it just outside the bathroom but I had to remember to do it, I've tried a clock in the bathroom (but being blind as a bat without my glasses that didn't work well lol).

So today I lashed out and bought a waterproof shower timer. It's a clock as well so will be useful for hubby getting ready for work in the morning. It was more than I wanted to spend but I only had a choice of 2 where I was - the $3 one was a 4 minute sand-timer which had 2 problems - once again, I'm as blind as a bat so seeing sand going through a timer without my glasses would probably be an issue!, and secondly even if I could see it, it would be too easy to ignore :) A persistant 'beep beep beep' should help!

Will let you know how I go..

(I did take some photos of it, but they have both come out really blurry. I suspect someone has been playing with the camera and stuck their fingers all over the lens again and quite frankly I don't have time to clean it atm..)

Finally took the photos..

Here is the bokchoy (and spring onions):

and peas, snow peas & carrots:

Don't adjust your screen..

I was sick of the pink so have gone with another template..

I need to buy tomatoes :(

I started getting tomatoes off our tomato plant in early April and haven't had to buy tomatoes since! Unfortunately we're nearing the end of them so I think I'll have to actually *buy* some this weekend :(

I pulled the plant up about 6 weeks ago and stored the tomatoes in a styrofoam box in the shed / under the house. They've lasted really well - I've just been grabbing about 1/2 kg out at a time. We've gotten 3kg off since I stored them!

I wish I'd kept track of how much we were getting off it prior to them but I only started keeping a garden diary about 6 weeks ago. I posted on 15th April that we'd had 1kg off at that point, and we were getting roughly 1/2 kg every week, so a rough guess would be 6 or 7 kg of beautiful fresh Roma tomatoes from 1 bush! Not bad at all I don't think! What's the current price for Roma tomatoes in the shop??!

Pretty soon we'll be able to start eating from the garden again - I have some peas fattening up on the pea plant, and the bok choy is growing well. Another couple of weeks I think. I'll take a photo later today if I don't get blown away :)

Weekend away

We had a nice weekend away in Sydney this weekend. We left Billy with his aunt & uncle who don't get to see much of him - they looked exhausted by the time we picked him up 24 hours later :)

We headed in to Sydney, booked in to the hotel at Kings Cross and then caught the train into the CBD. Meandered down to Circular Quay via a great little pie shop (Jesters) we found last time we were in the city. It was absolutely freezing - a cold wind and the sun was only out sometimes, but it was nice if you could get out of the wind and have the sun at the same time :) We had time to kill before the matinee performance of Othello so sat outside the Opera House and tried to keep warm until they opened up the Drama Theatre. Othello was quite good - it was the first time Bell Shakespeare has done it, but much to my disappointment, Marcus Graham (who was supposed to play Iago) was off sick. Rather than cancel, they went ahead with the understudy, Mitchell Butel, who did a surprisingly good job for someone who had 1 hours notice :) It was quite amusing though - he carried the book of the play with him the whole time but only had to refer to it fleetingly - mainly to trigger his memory. The audience did get a chuckle at him straining to see the book while being "strangled" though :) It would've been a lot more enjoyable if it wasn't for the old woman sitting in front of me in the 1st row who spent the first 10 minutes coughing her lungs out (to the extent that one of the actors threw her a throat lozenge lol), then the rest of the time talking or complaining that Mitchell should've known the lines.. Grrrr! Possibly because we were sitting so close to the front and straining to look up, but I found the guy who played Othello moved rather strangely and deliberately and it was rather offputting - I felt he was moving like a Thuderbird lol. All in all, not one of their best, but not one of their worst either - they have a LONG way to go to surpass the sheer dreadfulness of King Lear a few years ago when half the audience walked out!!

We had tea at a little Czech restaurant in Kings Cross (Prague restaurant) - beautiful food, monster plate sizes and a wonderful atmosphere. I'd say we'll go back to that one for sure!

A bit of a sleep in this morning (8:30) then off to pick Billy up from Brad & Riss. I'm sure they collapsed exhausted on the lounge after we left!

It was a nice relaxing weekend, and in good timing too. I've had a very full-on month or so with work, and was getting quite frustrated with a couple of clients. Hopefully I can approach them with a better attitude now!

Stockpiling

The recent floods made me start thinking about the fact that our cupboards were pretty much bare and it made me pretty uncomfortable. So I've decided to start stockpiling again - just building it up a bit at a time. I have to admit though I purchased a "freezer filler" bulk meat pack - 1/2 cow and 1/2 pig (actually I think it was really a whole pig because I didn't want the 1/2 lamb that was supposed to be there as well). So that wasn't exactly slow :) I picked up a few extra things when I did the grocery shopping - an extra couple of bags of flour, tin of tomatoes etc.

Speaking of shopping, I've started trying to shop monthly - did my first shop last week. It was doing my head in a bit deciding what we needed, but fingers crossed I didn't do too badly. I'll keep my shopping list as a bit of a master list and see how I go.

Just leave me alone..

The hardest part I find about having a child is the lack of alone time. I'm a very solitary person - I need time to myself to be able to function properly. My favourite times are when I'm by myself - many days when I work at home I don't even have the radio or music on - just blissful silence. Even when I'm with close friends or family I need to wander off by myself for a little while to regroup. That's one reason I couldn't do teaching full-time - as much as I love it, it's very draining for me to be around people so much. I prefer my own company, and that of my online friends, as I can choose when I want to be sociable.

Unfortunately I've been 'blessed' with a child who doesn't like to be on his own for any longer than 10 minutes, who needs constant stimulation and loves noise. I have 3 days/week where he's at preschool which is my sanity saver - unfortunately this term I've been so flat out on those 3 days with training, my course or meeting with clients that I haven't had much alone time lately. And I'm really starting to suffer from it.

I'm so hard to explain how I feel to people - I think only people who share my 'affliction' will understand. My grandfather was a bit of a hermit - I think I've inherited it from him :)

Traffic chaos

One thing you really don't think about when something like the floods happen is the effect on traffic as people try to get back to "normal", ie off to work etc. At the moment, there is one way through Maitland that remains open - all of the little back roads that I take regularly to avoid the highway are cut due to floodwaters. So the New England H'way is it. A small section of that got closed on Monday night due to water over the road, and is still closed. That means rather than a 2-lane-each-way-80kmh highway, traffic is being diverted through the main CBD - a 60kmh-single-lane-each-way-with-traffic-lights nightmare! Add to that the extra cars on the road due to no trains running, and of course the ever present sight-see-ers coming for a look, and you have gridlock.

It took Pete over 3 hours to get home from work in Newcastle last night (normally a 60min trip) - he left at 3:30ish so he could avoid the rush! More than 2 hours of that was spent travelling between Greenhills and Maitland - a 10 min trip normally.

He's working from home today - I have to go in to Newcastle for an assessment today so I'm leaving early and will see if I can come home early too.

Flood Photos and life goes on

Here are a couple of photos I took of the Hunter River at Belmore Bridge, Maitland yesterday (Monday) afternoon about 2pm. This was almost 12 hours after the river peaked. The line of trees in the middle of the river (which almost looks like the far side of the river) is where the bank usually is...

These are the water views from our back deck - I haven't seen that much water in the dams and paddocks there in the 7 years we've lived here.

It's good to see the veges continue unabated - we have the first flower on the pea plant, and the bok choy and snow pea seeds have just started to stick their little green heads above the soil!

The levees held!

We woke up to the wonderful news this morning that the river had peaked at 10.7, below the 11.4 predicted which would have seen it spill over the levee banks into Lorn and the CBD. They're still advising people to stay away though. A lot of the water seems to have been diverted into the spillways which means we couldn't go in there even if we wanted to!

Here are some photos (courtesy of the ABC) of the flooding all around the area -

http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle/stories/s1946209.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle/stories/s1947168.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle/stories/s1947247.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle/stories/s1947270.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/newcastle/stories/s1947316.htm

Living through history - 2007 Maitland Floods

Just after 10pm I heard on ABC Newcastle radio that the water has breached the floodgates at Maitland (Oakhampton). Potentially Lorn and the Maitland CBD will be flooded within the next couple of hours. We're safe where we are but will be cut off for a while. We've filled a couple of 50L drums with water in case the water gets cut off, have enough food for a while, torches, candles, batteries, gas etc.

It started with huge storms for several days since Thursday. By Friday Newcastle was absolutely devastated - the CBD and many other suburbs were under waist-deep water, cars have floated away or been swamped. Looking at the photos is very surreal. Pete was lucky to get home from work since the trains were no longer running. He was lucky to get home when he did - I'd say half an hour after he left the main deluge occurred.

The flooding has come down from Singleton, Branxton, Greta and now it's Maitland's turn. All we can do is sit and wait..

We have worms :)

Composting ones, that is :)

I picked up some worms this morning from a local LETS lady so our worm farm is back in operation! I also planted some more seeds - snow peas, brown & red onions, spring onions and bok choy. Hopefully in 6 or 7 weeks we'll at least be eating bok choy :) I pulled up the tomato bush last week and stored all of the green tomatoes in the area under the house - hopefully we'll have a few more weeks eating home-grown tomatoes. It's just a shame I have nothing to pick when I go out to the garden atm :( The peas are coming along slowly and the other seeds (lettuce, carrots & herbs) have started to germinate.

Happy Mother's Day!

What a day! I got some great presents this morning - a cookbook and a pasta maker! Can't wait to try it out.

Billy and I made some Mother's Day cards this morning - I thought they came up great for a 4 year old :)

We then headed up to my SILs for lunch with them, my parents-in-law, my SILs parents-in-law, BIL and grandparents-in-law! All the cooking was done by my SIL & BIL and her BIL and it was fantastic - we ate, and ate, and then ate some more! The menu:

• Bruscetta & Garlic bread
• Creamy Garlic prawns and rice
• Pizzas (sweet chili, BBQ & tomato-based) and a spinach, pumpkin & ricotta pasta loaf
• Chicken cacciatore, baked tortellini and penne pollo
• Pannacotta & red-wine poached pears
• Coffee and cheesecake

As you can imagine, we are stuffed! We haven't needed tea at all..

It was great to spend some time with the triplets - the boys are walking now, Miss Mack won't be far behind.

Are you lonesome tonight?

I had quite a productive day today. I was doing a task on the computer (including a few overdue ones that I've been procrastinating over) then a task up and about (washing, folding, cleaning etc etc). Apart from being constantly interrupted by Billy, I achieved quite a lot.

I'm feeling rather lonesome atm. Mum & Dad, Janelle & the kids left on holidays on Friday, and Pete is away for work - he left yesterday and will be back on Saturday. So far Billy and I haven't killed each other being stuck at home together over the weekend, so we may make it through the week! I thought it was just him but discussions over on Real Mums seem to indicate that arguing about every little thing is a 4 year old trait!

Nothing major to report here - we've had some rain which was nice - even better that some fell where it was needed. I've hopefully got a new website contract - I've done the initial design so fingers crossed they like it. I'm in the midst of setting up offering hosting packages as well - hopefully that will work out ok. I still haven't heard back about a big contract that I did a quote for - the client is waiting on the funding ok. Other than that there is another website in the pipeline, but that's about it. It's very quiet atm - I'm probably averaging 3-4 hrs/wk when my aim is 15 hrs/wk, so finances are pretty tight :(

Friends of ours got married last weekend - Billy had a 'sleepover' at Mum & Dads, so we got to sleep in on Sunday morning - yay! I was talking to a lady at the reception and she mentioned that kindy enrolments for next year were opening this week, she thought. So I rang up on Monday - sure enough they did, so Billy's application is now lodged for kindergarten 2008! We have to have an interview in a couple of months, and they select the ones they want. Tough process! I thought I'd be over the moon putting his enrolment form in, but I have to admit to a touch of sadness that he's growing up. (Still can't wait for him to be in school 5 days/wk though :))

I'm really struggling with some things atm - growing the business to get more income vs working less and cutting spending, specialising vs diversifying. My trouble is that I always compare myself to where others are and come up short (in my mind at least) - I really need to stop doing it! (way easier said than done!) I wonder if everyone feels this way sometimes?

Lady has no steps..

Billy loves to answer the phone and races for it every time. The phone rang earlier today and he answered it, listened for a bit, told the lady "I think you need to speak to my mummy" and then handed me the phone saying "it's a lady who doesn't have steps and she wants to buy yours" - it was the House with no Steps for a fundraiser!!!! The lady was giggling so much on the other end of the phone - I think it made her day!

Container gardening

I admit it - I'm a lazy gardener! If I have to do something with a plant on a regular basis, it has to be right in front of me and in my face, otherwise I forget. My vege patch down in the backyard languished because it was 'out of sight, out of mind'. So I've started container gardening - growing plants in a styrofoam box (free from Aldi of course!) right at the back door. They're nice and close, I walk past them on the way to the clothes line so I don't forget about them and I can easily use waste water from the kitchen to water them. Plus they should be a bit more protected from the frost and get the heat from the bricks. I'll use the back vege garden for things I don't have to spend a lot of time on, like potatoes and pumpkin.

So far I have tomatoes doing really well - we've gotten close to 1kg of Roma tomatoes from 1 plant, and have just planted some peas as well. I've also just ordered some 'year round' lettuce, some basil & oregano (have already planted parsley), plus cucumbers, passionfruit and watermelon.

There's only 1 tomato plant in there!

Pea plant just poking it's head up.

Yummy homegrown Roma tomatoes!

40 hour drought

I "unofficially" took part in the ABC local radio's 40 Hour Drought on Wed & Thursday this week - http://www.abc.net.au/water/40hourdrought/. (Unofficially because I couldn't sign on to the website!) The challange was to only use 40L of water per person for a 40 hour period (starting from 7am Wed).

We made it, but it was tough! I "showered in a bucket", used greywater to flush the toilets when they needed it, let it "mellow" when they didn't need flushing, I cleaned my teeth with a couple of inches of water in the bottom of a cup, and was conscious of the amount of water used in other applications.

By measuring the water I was using, it really made me conscious about the water I normally waste. It would obviously be harder long term to forgo showers, and I didn't do any clothes washing over that 40 hour period. It really made me think about each bit of water I was using which I guess is the aim, and I identified a few more ways to save and re-use water.

By next goal is to set up grey water diversion for the washing machine.

The little things..

I have no idea where the last month has gone! I was quite busy with work for a few weeks, plus I've started my Cert IV in Training and Assessment so that has been taking up a fair amount of time. And I needn't mention that I'm on WAAAAY too many forums and have trouble keeping up with them! They all help me keep my focus on various aspects of my life though - frugal Aussies, Simple Savings and No More Debt keep me focused on saving & paying down debt, as well as being more organised, Business Mums keeps me focused on the business and sites like our private Due Date forum from when I was pregnant with Billy, and Real Mums keep my sanity intact :)

I've been focusing on saving power & water this month and have so far found out:

* My washing machine has a "spin hold" button so you can reuse the rinse water. Amazing what you find out when you read the manual - I mean I've only had the washing machine for 11 years lol.

* You don't need to use the maximum setting for everything :) The washing machine cleans just as well on the shortest cycle. Stuff cooks just as well on the low setting! Talk about lightbulb moments lol.

* The washing machine uses a scary amount of water.

That is my main goal this month - to really look at the power and water we use and try to cut down or identify ways we can reuse it eg grey water diversion from the washing machine to the fruit trees.

Weekend away

We had a lovely weekend away. We were supposed to be going to a friend's 1 year old's b'day party on Saturday down in Sydney, so we decided to make a weekend of it and take the van down. We got up early on Fri morning to put the van on before we had to go to swimming and then met Gem & Ewan at the park. After lunch we headed down to the Central Coast. We decided to stop at a caravan park at Bateau Bay - it was not a good choice as it turned out! We were right next to the road, and it was noisy :( We did have a nice swim on Shelley's Beach on Friday afternoon though.

That afternoon, we also got a text from the people having the party to say they were all sick, so the party was cancelled. So we just changed our plans a bit and headed a couple of kms up the road to Toowoon Bay in the Entrance. Lovely spot, lovely van park - we quite enjoyed it. Billy had a couple of plays on the playground, we had a swim and play on the beach (my legs are a bit sore from playing catch on the sand lol - I have to remember I'm not as young as I was!!!), and generally just relaxed.

We will definitely have to do it more often. I'd plan better next time though and take more food - it cost a fortune in eating out!

BMN Challenge 2

Challenge 2 of the Business Mum's Network Blogging challenge is to recommend a site I like.

While not directly related to my business, my favourite site is www.simplesavings.com.au/a.php?a=231616. It's a site all about saving money, frugal hints and tips etc. The membership section has a "vault" with lots of hints submitted by members, but the best thing about it is the forum. Just like the Business Mum's Network, it has an extremely active forum with the most wonderful members. It's such a supportive place. It is indirectly related to my business, because without the savings I've made by implementing tips from the SS site, I wouldn't be able to have my own business and would be back at a full-time job I hated.

A really cool site I love that *is* related to my business is www.csszengarden.com - it's a showcase for what you can do with Cascading Stylesheets and I find it so cool!

Blah..

I've been feeling blah and down all weekend. It hasn't been helped by the extreme heat we've had - high 30s on Sat and then 40 yesterday. It hasn't been cooling down much overnight either so sleep has been fitful. It's "only" going to be 34 today!

Firstly we went up to the Farmers Markets that were apparently on at Cessnock on Saturday - got there and no sign of the markets, just a "clearance house" auction of junk. We'd gone up to check Mum's house as well, and we ended visiting Pete's parents, but I was still really disappointed about the markets. Then my sister rang - they're on holidays in Tassie and she'd been in a car accident - they're all ok thankfully but the car is going to take a month to fix, so they may be back later than planned. I'm so thankful they're ok, but it really shook me up and I couldn't go and give them a big hug and see for myself that they're ok.

Then there was just a heap of little things - the birds have eaten all of the apples we had on our apple tree and I can't remember what else - one of those weekends where everything I touched seemed to go wrong.

Here's hoping for a better week this week!

Business Mums Network Blogging Challenge

In December I found and joined the Business Mum's Network run by Melissa Khalinsky. It's a wonderful resource for Australian mums of all ages who run a business - many of us have young kids and work from home and thus face all of the same challenges despite having so many different businesses! I've learnt so much already from the group and it's completely changing the way I approach my business.

Anyway Melissa has given us the first of many Blogging challenges to kickstart our blogs. The 1st challenge is to announce the challenge, so a tick for me :)

Some of the other mums taking part are:

Melissa Khalinksy - http://www.melissakhalinsky.com/blog/
Anne Maybus - http://thetallpoppy.blogspot.com/
Gina Rahmel - http://moshimoshibaby.blogspot.com/
Michele Elmas - http://www.mumsbusiness.wordpress.com/ and http://www.michelee.wordpress.com/
Justine Barsley - http://olibdesigns.blogspot.com/
Michelle Sweeney - http://tonicgifts.typepad.com/
Amy Herman - http://afaithfulwomanbookclub.blogspot.com/
Shelli Crane - http://rusticluxury.blogspot.com/
Kylie Short - http://www.tildavirtual.com.au/blog/
Amanda Cox - www.realmums.com.au/diaryofamadcow
Sarah - http://quiltfabricdelights.blogspot.com/

Why not check out their blogs too?

Reading

We've been reading The Magic Pudding as Billy's bedtime story for the last week. What a wonderful story! I don't think I've read it before (although knew the vague storyline of the pudding who is never empty). I'd seen the illustrations at Norman Lindsay's house in the Blue Mountains, but somehow missed reading the book. Billy has really enjoyed it.

His reading is coming along so well. He's been learning by picking small words out as Pete or I read to him, but tonight I pulled out an old Ladybird early reader, and he can read sentences like "The dog is in the shop"! He's pretty good at sounding out words if he can't remember them. I'll have to dig out the rest of the readers now - he's more than ready for them. I pity his teachers by the time he starts school next year!! I was told recently "don't teach him to read before he goes to school, his teacher will hate you" - but how can you stop someone who is so avid about it??! He picks words out wherever we go or whatever we're reading and wants to know what they are, and then memorises them. It's not like we're teaching him to read - he's basically teaching himself! He did the same with numbers - everywhere we'd go he'd see numbers and say "oh look we're in aisle 11" or "that sign says 8" etc. His latest obsession is the calendar. He knows exactly what month we're in, and now needs to know what date it is - he has a calendar in his room and marks the days off!

Back from holidays

We're back from Stuart's Pt - we had a wonderful week, lovely and relaxing. Photos to come when I get them off the camera. Pete took Billy to golf with him one morning and he walked around really well apparently (just 9 holes), and had a putt on each. He even got the ball in the hole a few times! We had lunch out a few times - spent more than I anticipated but it *was* holidays! I got to spend some quality time with the triplets - helping feed, bath, change etc - which was great to get to know their personalities more. I spent all day today doing washing and cleaning though so it doesn't seem so worth it now!

Back to reality tomorrow - Pete is back to work, we'll be doing grocery shopping. Billy starts preschool on Tuesday - I can't wait lol.

We've decided to start with Billy earning pocket money by doing simple chores. He still has to tidy up after himself and make his bed - they aren't paid for but have to be done to get the rest of his money. He gets extra money by doing stuff like fold and put away his clothes after I've washed them (10c) and set & clear the table (10c). At the moment we're giving him the money after he completes the task and he has to put it in his money box, but probably mid way through the year we'll move to giving it to him weekly. It's not a lot of money but enough to get him used to handling money - he can buy a chupa chup for 50c :) Once he gets a bit more responsible we'll add more like make sure the cat always has biscuits etc.

We only started today and boy is he keen - he kept wanting to do stuff for more money!

Oh and it's now been 15 days without Diet Coke!

Day 3

I've just finished my 3rd full day of being Diet Coke free! I had a headache most of today, but the aching in the joints has subsided a bit and I'm feeling far less fuzzy. Hopefully I'm over the worst of it..

In Praise of Slow: Book Review

I've recently read a fantastic book that is worth checking out, particularly if you're looking to simplify your life. It's called "In Praise of Slow: How a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed" by Carl Honore.

It's a non-fiction book - the author has a bit of an epiphany when he finds himself contemplating buying "The One Minute Bedtime Story" to save time reading to his son at night. He realises that he's obsessed with doing everything faster and starts to investigate how we got to this point in time and what can be done about it. He "uncovers" a world-wide movement of people trying to slow various aspects of life down and appreciate it more. He investigates things such as the Slow Food movement, alternative medicines, "slow sex", part-time work, leisure, raising unhurried kids etc. The main point I took from it though was that it's "not about doing things at a snail's pace - it's about living better ... by striking a balance between fast and slow". I really enjoyed it, and found it quite thought provoking.

We wish you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

Xmas disappeared in a haze and now it's 2007 already!

We had Xmas at the inlaws the day before Xmas. It was fun with the triplets - both of the boys are crawling, Mackenzie gets around a bit on her back, so you really had to watch where you were walking! Then we opened presents (ours and Santa) Xmas morning and went down to Linc's grandparents for lunch.

Very exhausting! So we have spent the last week doing very little trying to recover.

I'm on Day 2 of trying to give up Diet Coke - it's tough going but I'm getting there. It's so bad for me and makes me feel dreadful, plus I hate the fact that I'm addicted to it. There's a group of us on the Simple Savings site that are all trying to do it together, so hopefully with some peer support I'll kick it :)

Evil, evil stomach bug and busy weekend

Billy has had a rather nasty stomach bug this week. On Saturday we went to the Wiggles concert (more to come on that) where he developed a slight case of diarrhea and then vomited at McDonalds afterwards (and no, he hadn't even had a chance to eat the food lol). He was sick a couple of times on Sunday then seemed fine on Monday & Tuesday - just not eating a great deal. Tuesday night he was sick again a couple of times and yesterday was sick on average every 1hr - 1.5hrs.. *sigh* We ended up taking him up to the after hours clinic last night as I was starting to get worried about dehydration. The dr all but patted me on the head, told me he wasn't too dehydrated and to go home and watch him - duh! Anyway he seems a bit better today - hasn't been sick since last night (fingers crossed!) and has had a piece of bread to eat. It's only supposed to be a 48 hr bug - it's running rampant right through the valley..

Anyway, on Saturday we went to the Wiggles concert - we had great seats side on to the stage and got to see everything really well. Billy took a flower to give to Dorothy so he was pretty excited about that!

Sunday we had Xmas day up at my Mum & Dads - they go away this week so we had to have it early. We had lunch out at the club, and then half of us went to Christie's speech presentation (she was excellent of course!). While we were gone Billy developed a really high temperature and we had to stick him in a cold bath when we got home to get it down. He wasn't happy about that at all! Then we opened presents, had pizza for tea and opened lots more presents!

We put the Xmas tree up last Saturday. It was really special this year - we're starting to get lots of "homemade" decorations that you can look at and get nostalgic as to who made it and when..

We just dressed up Mum's life-size doll "Jenny" as Santa - she's sitting on the front verandah waving to the neighbours now! Thanks for the idea Jodi!! The Santa suit was only $5 from The Reject Shop, the shoes & belt were old ones of mine - she's a pretty cheap decoration and we'll be able to position her in a different spot each day just to amuse ourselves :)

Photos of our garden

Our front garden is looking great atm - it's an odd combination of protea, kangaroo paw, oyster plants and hydrangeas, but it looks very colourful!

Family reunion

We had the 3rd annual family reunion of my Mum's side on Sunday - my grandmother, mum's siblings, their kids and their kids (and partners of all of the above!). It's a good day - it started off 3 years ago for my grandmother's b'day and has turned into an annual get-together at Norah Head. We take over the park above Hargraves Beach for a BYO picnic lunch, and then the adventurous climb down the hundred-odd steps (not sure if there's that many but it feels like it!) to the beach. My cousins rented the lighthouse cottage for the week as well, so we went back there for afternoon tea. It's a nice relaxing day and great to catch up with everyone. However my calves are sooooo sore from the steps - I had to climb up and down twice as we forgot to take Billy's bucket & spade down the first time!!

I won a book today - it's the 1st prize I've won for myself after the ballet tickets for my nieces and 4 tubes of men's facial cleanser for Pete :) I won Tara Moss's new one, Hit, from a New Idea competition. It was a 25 word or less competition too so I'm doubly stoked with it!

The Use-it-up challenge continues - so far I've removed from the list:

• fish fingers
• sweet rice
• bread ends (now in the freezer as breadcrumbs)

Slowly getting there!

'Use-it-up' update..

I've managed to use up a couple of bits & pieces:

* the tuna & pasta from the freezer were lunch for Billy & I the other day
* I toasted some of the pine nuts and added them to a stirfry
* I made a loaf of pumpkin & sunflower bread using 1 lot of gramma and some of the sunflower seeds - not bad, a bit heavy on the cumin though

I'll dry the bread ends out in the oven tomorrow night while I'm cooking tea, so they're ready to make into breadcrumbs.

I've heard of a 'flea in the ear'..

I can't believe I forgot to write this about Monday morning - I woke up at 2:30 with a bug flying into my ear! Trying to get it out just lodged it deeper until I had to go up to emergency to get it out! The worst of it was it was still alive and flying around inside my ear canal - it was the worst feeling. I felt like ripping my ear off to stop it. I ended up tipping water in to try and dislodge it - at least that drowned it and stopped it moving in my ear! Anyway 2 hours up at Emergency of our local hospital and they couldn't get it out - it was lodged too deeply (it was right next to the ear drum). So I had to get a referral to the Newcastle hospital for yesterday, where they suctioned it out! My ear is sore atm, not sure if it's just where they were poking and prodding - hopefully it won't get infected on top of everything!

'Use it up' challenge

I'm following on from a friend's challenge - she's made a list of everything that needs to be 'used up' in the pantry etc. (http://lightening74.blogspot.com/2006/11/use-it-up-challenge.html) I'm very guilty of buying stuff for a 'gourmet' recipe and then never using it again. So here's my list - I'll report on how much I've managed to use up as I go over the next few weeks.

Pantry

• garlic lime chicken rub
• berry flakes / banana bits
• sunflower seeds
• pine nuts
• paw paw & tomato chutney
• dragonfruit and chili sauce
• dragonfruit dessert sauce
• polenta
• apple cider vinegar
• white wine vinegar
• red wine vinegar (see a trend here?!)
• arborio rice

Fridge

• salsa x 2
• capers
• 1/2 block copha
• hoisin sauce
• tandoori curry paste

Freezer

• bread ends (make breadcrumbs)
• puff pastry
• capsicum
• chilis
• zucchini
• pineapple slices
• thai curry paste
• soup x 5
• frankfurts
• sweet rice
• pasta spirals
• tuna
• fish fingers
• mashed gramma

Any suggestions gratefully accepted!

Billy's sunflower

Baking day & assorted bits..

We made 4 lots of biccies yesterday using a bulk recipe from the Savings Vault - 1 lot of jam biscuits, 1 lot of cocoa & peppermint, 1 lot of hundreds & thousands, and 1 lot of sultana & cinnamon. I even found out how to make your own condensed milk! The biscuits are very yummy - I've frozen most of them so that will do us for treats for a while.

I have some tiny shoots coming up in the vege garden - not sure what yet, but I'm pretty excited :) My herbs bit the dust - the pots blew down and broke in the strong winds the other day. Bummer..

I finally listed some more stuff on Oztion in the hope of making a bit extra before Xmas. No nibbles yet but still 5 days to go. Hopefully I'll find some more time to list this week too.

My teaching has finished for the year - I'm quite relieved about that. I don't think I'll be doing any teaching next year for the main college I've worked at for the past few years - the timetable doesn't look like it will work out for me. I'm not sure if that's by design or not, but I'm not really worried. I'm planning on doing the Cert IV of Workplace Training and Assessment qualification next year which is on Wednesdays - I'd told the guy who was doing the timetabling that I couldn't do Wednesdays anymore and that's when my courses ended up... C'est la vie..

Home Scan

I just got a phone call from AC Nielsen inviting me to join their "Home Scan" program where you get a little gadget and scan everything you buy - groceries, fruit & veg etc - for market research. I'm not 100% certain how the rewards bits works yet but you earn points for doing it that you can redeem for vouchers, gifts etc. I'm strangely excited by it :) It should tie in well with me wanting to get back to keeping track of what I'm buying.

Veges

I finally got motivated enough to do some planting today. I have a big garden down the back but I have to admit to letting it get over-run. I get keen, clear it out, plant and then because it's either too hot or too cold and too far away, I don't get back to it. I'm not a very consistent gardener :(

So I got a foam box from Aldi (discarded fruit box), and have planted some salad vegetables at the back door. Tomatoes (cherry & Roma), carrots and spring onions. It may or may not work but it's worth a try! I'll get some lettuce seedlings once I see how these go. I also replanted the parsley and oregano in my hanging baskets, and Billy planted some flower seeds in another pot - I'm pretty sure the seeds were waaaay out of date so I'd be very surprised if anything came up but at least he felt useful!

Time to get serious again

We've just been coasting along financially lately, not really getting into more debt, but not really getting too much ahead with paying it off either. So plan of attack:

* redo the budget for the latest interest rate rise
* update price book with Aldi prices
* stop frittering little bits of money away - it's "only" $2 here, $2 there but it adds up
- start taking snacks again when we go out rather than buying,
- empty purse of money each day - only take what we will need for the day,
- go back to recording what we're spending

I only have one more week of teaching - when that's over I will have reduced income, but it will also give me more time to be organised and is the major cause of the little extras - buying a can of coke and/or packet of chips, tea on the nights I work etc.

Aldi

I did another shop at Aldi today. I need to restart my price book - I know most things were comparable in price to Bilo from memory, but some things I think may be slightly dearer. There are a couple of things I can't get at Aldi (like wholemeal flour) so it will mean the occasional shop at Bilo as well, if there are things that are cheaper there I may as well pick them up at the same time. I think I must be on version 6-million of my price-book. One of these days I'll find something that I will stick with! If only the prices would stop going up all the time :D

A flash of sunshine..

I just looked out of the window on a drizzly morning to see a sunflower growing in our vegetable garden! What a cheery sight! Billy had "planted" some seeds some time ago (I think he just lay them on top of the soil) - obviously the birds had missed seeing it :)

Back to "normal"

Back to what passes as normal in our life.

We had an excellent time on our trip. We drove down to Sydney on the Friday morning and left our car at Grant's place. He dropped us at Pennant Hills train station - so Billy had his first train ride into the city. We got off at Wynyard - a comfortable walk to the hotel (Old Sydney Holiday Inn in the Rocks) normally - but not with a heavy suitcase! We'd been up at the crack of dawn to drive down, so we ended up not doing a lot that afternoon. Went out to a Pizza place for tea - mmm, real pizza! Saturday we caught the ferry from Circular Quay around to Darling Harbour (Billy's first ferry ride) and went to the aquarium. It was quite good, and we were early enough to avoid the crowds, but Billy is a hands-on person and just looking isn't his cup of tea! We probably set a world record for the fastest time around the aquarium :)

We walked back to the room and after lunch Pete & I went over to the Opera House to watch "The Tempest" while a 'Dial-an-angel' babysitter looked after Billy. The play was excellent - it's the first time John Bell has been in one of his productions for years and he stole the show. I just wish there were more of the originals in the cast these days - people like Christopher Stollery, Sean O'Shea etc. The new casts still seem to be finding their feet.

Sunday was up bright and early to catch the shuttle bus at 6am over to the airport. Check-in was remarkably painless thanks to the "eTicket" touchscreens - it's the first time I've used them. The flight went well (Billy's first flight!) - no problems with his ears - and thanks to the novelty of everything, the stuff I'd packed for him to do (plus his new Dora drawer) and the kid's pack he got on board, he was fairly well entertained.

We arrived in Adelaide, picked up the hire car (again no problems - can you tell I was expecting something to go wrong?!), and started heading in the general direction of Emma's house. I rang her on the road to find out her address and get directions lol. We ended up meeting Dave and Vippy at a shopping centre not far from the freeway and followed them home. We visited at their place for a while, then went out to lunch at Grumpy's Brewhaus for yummy pizza. Back to their place for afternoon tea, a "cat hunt" and lots of chatting! Billy & Vippy played well together considering they'd only met once when they were about 18 mo (and they were both essentially only children up until Ashie was born).

The next day we headed for the Barossa Wine Region for a quick look around. We went via the giant Rocking Horse that you could climb up! One of us had to stay on the ground to take photos so I volunteered! One of the breweries Pete wanted to visit wasn't open until the weekend, but we did manage to get to Maggie Beer's to sample her wonderful sauces, pates etc. Down to the other side of Adelaide the next day for a look around at Goolwa (and a brewery tour at Steam Exchange), and Victor Harbour - both lovely, laid-back places.

We stayed at Glenelg Beach that night - we had been going to meet with Emma et al the next day but it was going to be about 35 deg C, Vippy wasn't well and she'd cut her foot on some glass! so we postponed it to Friday. We caught the tram (another first for Billy) into the city, had a look around at the mall, did a bit of shopping and came back out. The tram trip back out was a nightmare - packed to the rafters with school kids heading for the beach!

Thursday we headed up to Semaphore Beach to go on the steam train that didn't run due to the hot weather!, then over to Port Adelaide (another brewery tour) - they've really made it nice up there. We spent an hour or two at the Investigator Science Centre - it was very similar to the science part at our museum and Billy loved it! I even learned some things from the show :)

Friday we met up with Em, Vippy & Ashie at Brighton Beach. The wind was cold and it had started to rain by the time we left. The kids seemed to have a good time playing in the water but it was a bit too much by the end and we had a few tears on both sides :)

Saturday we headed back up to the Barossa to go to the brewery that wasn't open on our previous trip - good thing too as they were so helpful and we learnt so much from them. Sunday we finished our trip by visiting Hahndorf - an old German village. Very touristy but a pleasant way to spend a morning (and a great sausage lunch!). Our plane left in the afternoon - it was raining by the time we got back into Sydney. Fortunately Grant picked us up from the airport which saved us a fair bit of time. It was a late night home as it was.

A great trip - even though we ate too much and spent too much! It was great to see Emma & Dave again, see how much Velouria had grown and see the new addition Asherah!

The next day Pete headed off on his brewing course, and I picked Charlene and Eve up at the train station in Newcastle. We first met Charlene (daughter) and Eve (Mum) on our trip around Europe in 1999 and became firm friends. We stayed with them when we went over to NZ a few years later. It was great to see them - it was just like we had seen each other only a few months ago, not years. We didn't do a lot - a bit of shopping, had a look around Morpeth, and watched a few DVDs. They left again on Thursday.

I think the house is finally back to normal - all the washing & ironing done, the grocery shopping done and the suitcases away!

I finished!!

I just finished the coding for the 2nd-hand bookstore website! Now it's over to the client for testing and probably a few tweaks, then put it live once the domain is finalised.

Poor Swannies couldn't defend their premiership today - they went down by 1 point. I only saw the last 10 minutes and it was a nailbiter! I heard that it was the closest grand final since the 60s! Pete, Grant, Daz & Julie drove down to watch it - a long way to go for them not to win, but apparently the atmosphere was excellent.

We only have a few days until we go to Adelaide - we leave on Friday for Sydney for a few days first and then fly out on Sunday. We get back late on the following Sunday night, then Charlene and Eve are coming to stay for a few days, and Pete has his brew course as well. So I'm busy trying to juggle finishing off the website (now done!!!!), finishing a few jobs for a couple of other clients before we go away and trying to get the house ready for visitors! I'm not getting to bed until late and Billy is waking up at the crack of dawn (6am this morning), so I am very tired.. In fact I think I'll go to bed right now :)

My first comping win!

I'm so excited - I just won a double pass to see Giselle at the Parramatta Riverside Theatre. I'm passing them onto my ballet mad niece - she's so excited too!!!

Arrrrggghhh!

Well I came home from doing a mystery shop this morning to find Michelangelo had decided to get the markers out and use the CARPET in his bedroom as a canvas!!!!! What was he thinking?!!!
Anyone want a 4 year old??! Free to a good home - heck, any home will do :)

Fragmented..

Do you ever feel like you have to be everything to everyone? That you're being pulled in a million different directions and if any of them exert extra pressure you're going to shatter into a million pieces??

My life is like one of those plate spinners at the circus - life is fine while all the plates are spinning ok, but once they all start needing attention, that's when the trouble starts..

I think I need a long soak in a bubble bath with a trashy book tonight.. Now to find if I have any bubbles that Billy hasn't used up..

Comping!

I have become addicted to a new site - compingclub.com. It's Australian and lists thousands of competitions to enter!! I've entered competitions before but tend to get disheartened when I don't win - so hopefully if I enter enough, I'll start to win lol.

I'm busy with the new bookshop website - it's going well so far. Just taking a break from it now to ponder what direction to go in with one section.

Billy's at preschool today - I love Wednesdays and Thursdays! He seems to talk or sing or just make nonsense sounds CONSTANTLY. Plus he follows me around while he's doing it - I still can't go to the loo in peace! It's so nice to have peace and quiet so I can think. I'm really struggling with fitting work in now that he's not napping - I have to do it at night but by the time night comes around I'm usually too tired... I have to keep reminding myself that I work from home so I can be with him - it is my choice and I just have to be flexible and cope with the new routine.. Oh and copious amounts of caffeine may help too :)

Born salesman!

Billy had set up a fruit shop in the loungeroom the other night. His value-adding and product placement was very good - he was also selling peelers right next to the apples & pears :)

Anyway, I picked up an apple & pear to buy and he charged me $50 each - I commented that it was very expensive fruit and his comeback - "But this is a very, very, very, very, very good fruit shop!!!!" LOL

This week

So what's been going on this week?

Billy finally finished the antibiotics - yay! He's completely fine now.

Boutique Bubs website (www.boutiquebubs.com.au) website finally went live - I'm quite pleased with it and I think Kellie is too.

Pete's been away in Sydney for a few days for his Masters - I think that's it as far as the courses go, he just has to complete a couple more assignments and he will be finished!

Happy Father's Day

It was Father's Day today, Billy was at Mum & Dad's place because I had to work. They went to the cemetery where my grandfather (Mum's Dad) is buried to put flowers on the grave.

Billy told me tonight that "Garmummy has a Pop too - we went to visit him today and left flowers in his yard but we didn't see his house" :)

Ear update

Back to the dr yesterday and got the all clear on the ear - he said that as much as he could see the hole had healed and it was all white inside which meant no infection. There was still some dead skin and dried blood and stuff floating around inside but that should come out of it's own accord. Very good news!

His temp went down on Tuesday - I didn't need to give him any panadol Tue night, and he's been fine ever since - you wouldn't even know he'd had a problem. Still on the antibiotics though - that's painful 3 times a day!

Tue we went to Cafe Au Play for lunch with some ladies I know from online - it's a kid's indoor play area with a small cafe - Billy had a blast and wants to go again next week!

Wed & Thu I was flat out with work while Billy was at preschool. I got a lot of little bits and pieces out of the way which was good, but more work keeps coming into my inbox every day! I'm struggling to juggle it all, but am thinking of the money :)

Fri I had a migraine so I don't remember a lot of it! We had the drs appt and went to the library - I think that was it. Pete got home about 8pm - he's off in Sydney again next week for a few nights too.

Ruptured eardrum :(

Billy has been running a temp for a few days and was complaining for a few days about having a sore cheek but I assumed if anything that it was teeth. The day after his party he woke up with blood on his pillow and all around his ear - I cleaned it up and kept an eye on it through the day - no more so I assumed he'd just scratched it through the night. (Lot of assuming here, huh?!)

Anyway 11pm last night I went in to him and there was more blood on the pillow. I rang the After Hours clinic and after lots of questions they said it sounded like a ruptured ear drum from the infection. They said I should get it seen to - so up we traipse to the hospital at 11:30pm. Of course they'd just had a couple of emergencies come in(including a woman the cops picked up for paint sniffing!) so it was 30 mins before we were even triaged and then 2am before we were seen :( The late night quiz show that was on the tv in the waiting room was very painful!!!

Diagnosis was a ruptured ear drum - he gave us some antibiotics (Amoxycillin) and off we went to try and get some sleep. The dr did say he must've had a good pain threshold to not be more in pain!

It's a battle to get him to take the antibiotics (they do smell quite foul!) - I'm not looking forward to doing it for a week :( We have an appt at the drs on Friday to get it checked again. He doesn't seem to be in huge amounts of pain - still running a temp and gets a bit whingy at times but is quite chirpy the rest of the time. As Em said "After 4 years they still find ways to scare the hell out of us!"

Oh and did I mention that Pete is in Sydney for work this week so I'm on my own??!

Happy b'day 4 year old!

4 years ago, at 9:13am on the 27th Aug, Billy was born. How our life has changed in that 4 years!

I cannot believe our baby is 4 years old today! Some days I wonder how he made it :)

He's turning into a real little boy - he has grown up so much in the last 12 months, particularly this year since he started pre-school. He's so much more independent than he used to be - can dress himself mostly (still has a bit of problem taking his jumper off), even made his own scrambled eggs in the microwave the other morning! He pretty smart - he can read & spell some words and can write some letters, he knows things like the months and can do simple sums. He loves preschool and they love him - it's always nice to get reports from the teachers!!

His Bob the Builder party went well today. The weather was nice, it was a fairly relaxing day and I think everyone enjoyed it. It was just family and a few friends but that was enough. He got lots of presents - I'm not sure where we'll put half of them!

So onto the next year!

Bob the Builder Cake

Bob the Builder Cake

Blowing out the candles

Smile!

Being a duffer!

Billy the boxer!

PS to One of those days..

I actually did have 2 good things happen yesterday. The 1st was when we went to the library - a book I've been waiting on for months was finally available ('Living the good life' by Linda Cockburn). The other was about 11pm - I found out I've got a new web design contract. I'm very excited about this - it has to do with my favourite subject - books :)

One of those days..

It was one of those days today where I really shouldn't have even gotten out of bed. It started by spending half an hour looking in vain for a CD Billy has borrowed from the library and misplaced. Continued with getting the electric bill that was DOUBLE what I was expecting - no more heaters on in this household now!. I dropped a glass bowl and shattered it tonight, and then sliced my finger open on a sharp knife while I was washing up... I'm sure there were more - they were just the highlights :(

All Things Hunter

I don't think I mentioned that I'm now "working" for All Things Hunter. I'm not actually getting paid at this stage - but will be getting a % of the hopefully heaps of profit from the web side of things! Fingers crossed anyway! So if you're reading this, go and check out All Things Hunter - Hunter Valley country fresh gift baskets and gourmet hampers, pass it on to all your friends and even better, buy something :) If you work for a company we do corporate gifts and branding, and will offer an employee discount! Oh and if you enter the competition (click on the WIN link) - you can go in the draw to win stuff!

There, that will get the sales flooding in :)

What else? Pete's away again this week for work... I need to start planning Billy's party as it's on next Sunday and I'm working a lot next week! I did buy plates and stuff yesterday so we have something to eat off - I'd better order the food so we have something to put on the plates!

I'm brain dead - can't think - need sleep... Night!

Officially a goldfish!

Billy went up a class at swimming today - he is now officially a 'goldfish'! He went quite well, it should be a good class as 2 of the kids are more advanced than him. He has been at the top of his previous classes for so long (mainly because he's older - not because he's a good swimmer!) and he learns well from copying the more advanced ones.

Kangaroos

We got home from dropping Pete at the train this morning to find the mob of kangaroos right up at the fence - they'd come down for a look see! We couldn't get too close to them, but close enough to see them quite well. It's so cool to see them across the road from your own house!!

"Chicken pops"

Billy went for his chickenpox (or "chicken pops" as he calls them) vaccination yesterday. When they discovered how old he was they gave me the option of getting his 4yo shots as well - so poor bugger got 3 needles at once :( He was very brave and didn't cry. They were excellent with him - blew bubbles to distract him, got him to count & sing songs. I was very impressed!

So that's the last lot of needles til he's in high school now. He was allowed to get KFC for tea as a reward - I had to suffer it too though :( He doesn't seem to be suffering from any reaction to any of the needles - they told me there's a 4% chance he may get a slight case of the chickenpox in the next month, so fingers crossed he's not in the minority!!

My oztion sales are going really well - I'm selling stuff fairly cheap because there's minimal fees, but so far I've sold 7 things, with 2 more with bids!! More than I was getting on eBay!!

Where does the time go?

I'm not sure what happened to the last week and a half! I was busy moving stuff over to oztion (and have made my first sales over there - yay!!!), busy with work and not sleeping very well so haven't had a lot of motivation.

Pete made a cupboard to go into Billy's wardrobe for his toys - it really tidies the space up! It looks great - it was a bit of a tight fit, in fact we wondered if it would fit a couple of times, but we got it in!



Billy had a concert at preschool on Friday - just a couple of songs and dances, and then afternoon tea but it was cute! He was the victim of a little altercation on Wednesday at preschool - another kid pushed him into the wall and he got a fair bump and carpet burn on his forehead. I happened to be standing next to the kid's grandfather after the concert, and he said "x didn't do that did he??!" Ummm, well actually, now you mention it!!

The business opportunity is looking like it might go ahead - still have to work out licensing etc, so it will be a little while before anything happens. I'm busy getting the tax done so we can afford to go ahead with it!

Mum & Dad are back from their trip away, so we went up to see them yesterday. I don't think they're that keen on being back in the cold!!

Pete's away for a course this week as well so it might be a LONG week!!

A pox on ebay

eBay today shot itself in the foot and caused a mass exodus of sellers. They announced a massive increase in store fees and decreased the amount of store listings showing up in searches - how's that for getting shafted - we'll make you pay more AND give you less for it! There are MANY HUNDREDS of irate sellers (including yours truly) who have either closed their stores or will close them before the fee increases kick in. I'm moving my stock over to oztion.com.au - no listing fees, reasonable final value fees. It doesn't have the same amout of buyers, but at this stage it won't cost me money to list there and any I make is a bonus. I'll possibly still list auctions on ebay for stuff I think will sell in auction format, but I am extremely negative towards them atm. So much for my plans to increase the business, buy wholesale etc - luckily I'd procrastinated enough to save me some money there :)

Final costings went in tonight for Pete's business opportunity. Fingers crossed that they're competitive and that it works out...

On the table tonight: steak sandwiches

Food, glorious food

Grocery shopping today - the highlight of Billy's fortnight!!!  It was one of those weeks where we were out of bizarre things like garbage bags and metho - don't know why they always all seem to run out at once!

 

We made some sausage rolls up for lunch today - the recipe made 12 full size sausage rolls and worked out about $3.50.  < 30c each sausage roll - not bad value!!!  We had some for lunch and then Pete demolished another couple when he got home from work, so they must've gone down ok :)

 

On the table tonight: stir friend ginger chicken with bok choy (from the garden), snow peas (from the garden), zucchini and carrot.  Served with rice...

 

A potential business opportunity opened up today, so Pete has been frantically doing some numbers and figuring tonight.  I don't want to say too much and jinx it, but it could be very exciting if it works out. 

 

On that climactic note... time for bed!

 

 

Great weekend

What a lovely and relaxing weekend we had!

The drive down to Sydney was fairly disgusting - rain, and several fender-benders along the way. We got down there and checked in; Pete has been working away a lot this year and had enough points for a free night at the Old Sydney Holiday Inn in the middle of the Rocks. It was still raining, so we had a brisk walk across to the Opera House to collect our tickets for the matinee of Bell Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". I hadn't seen or read the play before (although obviously I knew the storyline!!), and was pretty underwhelmed. I don't think it was so much Bell's interpretation as the original play. It was about an hour too long (just over 3 hours with a 20 min interval), and the speeches were way too flowery and long-winded for me. You know you're not really into the play when you keep thinking through the various death speeches "Oh, just get on with it!!". I thought the strongest characters were Matthew Moore as Mercutio and Philip Dodd as Friar Lawrence. Anyway I enjoyed the experience of watching Shakespeare again, even if the play didn't do a lot for me. Looking forward to the Tempest in October!

After the play we walked over to Clarence St to go to the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe (http://www.redoak.com.au/) - Pete had tried the beers at a beer tasting night he went to. I can't rave enough about the place - the food was delicious, the service was excellent, and by Pete's report, the beer was sensational! I had Stout Braised Wagyu Beef Cheeks on pappardelle pasta, caramelised root vegetables and slow roasted cherry tomatoes which was melt in the mouth, Pete had the Gourmet Sausages of the Day (chicken & lemon) on parmesan and caramelised onion mash and crisp onion rings. For dessert I had the apple pudding which came with cinnamon ice-cream and apple fritters, and Pete had the tasting dessert board which matched 4 small desserts with 4 small beers.



White chocolate and Blackberry Hefeweizen ripple ice cream with Honey Ale
Soft centred chocolate pudding with Brown Porter
Redoak beer filled chocolate truffle with Special Strong Ale
Bitter flourless chocolate cake with Irish Stout

We sat there for 3 hours eating and talking - unheard of for us! It was getting very crowded when we left - there was a 21st party on as well as a screening of the rugby.

And then a really cool thing - we were walking back to the hotel and walked past Rockpool. We looked in at the chef's working in the front kitchen - and Neil Perry was at work! It was very cool watching him work! OK, so small things amuse me... :) We ate at Rockpool a couple of years ago - it was the most fabulous dining experience I have ever had (also the most expensive lol).

Checkout wasn't until 11am so we got to laze around in the morning and sleep in - without getting woken up by a small child :) He stayed at his Ma & Pops and had a great time by the sounds of it. Unfortunately last night was a shocker - I was up several times to him with a dreadful croupy type cough and not being able to catch his breath. So tired!!! Oh well, at least we had the weekend!

Bargain of the day!

At the Steggles shop today I scored 6 kg of chicken stirfry meat for $30 - $5/kg – bargain!! So chicken stirfry, chicken enchiladas, apricot chicken, I can mince some for chicken patties, mmmm… what else??! I’m sure I’ll think of something!!

We had friends over for tea tonight – I made a couple of pizzas (ham & pineapple, and BBQ chicken with capsicum, mushroom, tomato) & garlic bread which seemed to go over well. I was struggling to be overly sociable though – I’m just really exhausted; not sleeping overly well and I think it’s an adrenaline let-down after the last couple of weeks of stress. Plus Billy was a bit of a horror today – or I wasn’t overly patient with him – one or the other, but the same end result.

We’re off to Sydney to watch Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet tomorrow, and staying the night down there. Billy is staying with his Ma & Pop for the weekend which he is very excited about.

Full moon

“The moon is full because it drank too much glasses of milk” - Billy

New laptop!

I'm writing this on my new laptop!! I finally took the time to get it set up enough to start using it - however now I'm at that really annoying stage when every time I go to do something I realise I can't because I haven't got x on my machine yet. I do have email and internet access though so the important things are covered :)

I'm not sure where this week has gone - Thursday is just about over already! Monday we stayed home. Tuesday we met my sister and nieces in the park for a play and lunch while the car was in for a wheel alignment. Then we went down to watch Pete play indoor cricket that night. Yesterday I was teaching (Intermediate Word & Excel) so that was all day gone. Today I didn't get any programming done but got a lot of little loose ends tidied up - ebay posted, letters & emails written, laptop setup, phone calls made & received etc.

I sold some stuff on eBay so have renewed my Simple Savings membership! Yay! I've got more stuff on auction at the moment.

On the table tonight - fish, mashed potato and veges. It was the last lot of fish in the freezer - we were very "fished out" after the CSIRO diet and having it twice a week, so aren't in a hurry to get some more (even though we know how good it is for us).

Currently reading: Marion Keyes 'The Other side of the story'. It's a very light chick-lit book but just the type of thing I can pick up, read a couple of pages and put back down again.

Creative play

Made some playdough for the munchkin this morning, so now I have multi-coloured hands from the food colouring!  (Yeah I know I should wear gloves!).  So he's a happy boy..

 

I also made some eggless Choc-chip muffins (we were out of eggs) and tried to make some savoury biscuits like Jatz, but they failed in a big way :(  Back to the drawing board on those.  Yesterday I made an Italian bread in the breadmaker - standard bread recipe + tomato paste & basil.  Very yummy for lunch with tomato & cheese.  I've frozen the rest - I think it will go great with the vege soup for lunch later in the week.

 

Billy insisted on helping me do the ironing & folding this afternoon.  What was supposed to be a 5 minute job turned into a marathon!  Not sure how well the clothes came up after all that, but most of them are his so it doesn't really matter :)

 

I haven't done a thing with the business this weekend - after the last couple of weeks of pushing to meet deadlines I was pretty burnt out.  I got heaps listed on eBay though which has been long overdue.  I may do a bit tonight if I feel like it, otherwise will have to get stuck into it again tomorrow.

 

Tonight's menu:

 

roast chicken (a la Jamie Oliver), baked potatos & veges.  And probably a choc-chip muffin for dessert!

 

Busy day

A very busy day yesterday - I had to go to the Chiro in the morning, and then see 2 clients in the afternoon. I did get to spend some time doing some clothes shopping - I used the money I got from Emailcash to buy 2 lovely polar fleece jackets. I can't remember the last time I went clothes shopping so it was long overdue.

I installed the system at the clients yesterday for them to test - they wanted a few minor changes initially plus some extra features that I've persuaded them to leave for the next round of changes. We could keep making changes to this forever, but I want to get it in and installed so they can actually start using it!

I ended up with a migraine though which still hasn't really gone away today :(

Website launch! and imaginary friends

One down - the All Things Hunter website went live yesterday. I was up until midnight finishing off some behind the scenes admin stuff so the owner can edit the product information, but it's done! Well actually 1 more bit to test to do with uploading photos & permissions but that can wait until I teach her how to resize photos. Now today I need to concentrate on the system I'm installing tomorrow for the client to test.

So the last thing I needed this morning was to be woken at 6:30am by a little voice saying "Mummy, I can't find my black trackpants. I need to get ready for preschool"! At least we got to have a good snuggle in bed before we had to get started for the day - me, Billy, puppy, and the imaginary friends - Atyl, Merna and Zoo. (don't ask me!)

My Simple Savings membership is due, so I'm trying to come up with the money to pay it without dipping into the normal money. I've put some stuff up on eBay - hopefully some of that will sell and help out.

Now to work..

Saw the triplets!

We went up to SIL's to see the triplets today - it was the 1st time we've seen them since they got out of hospital since we've been sick. They've grown so much!! I got to have a cuddle of them all, but no, I'm not clucky! I'm quite happy being a good Aunty :)

Not sure if the late nights have caught up with me and my body is saying 'enough' or if I've got a migraine starting (which wouldn't be a surprise after the choc-chip cookies!), but I am absolutely exhausted tonight. I'm about to have a very early night. I have heaps of work, but it will have to wait..

'Chocolat'

Not a bad film - not nearly as good as the book, although it does have the advantage of Johnny Depp :) I was quite disappointed in the plot change - having the mayor as the bad guy rather than the priest - I guess a mad priest isn't politically correct these days!

Last day of teaching for 3 weeks - yay!!!

Off to see the triplets tomorrow - we haven't seen them since they got home from hospital. We had plans to, but then we all got sick, so we haven't made it up there. Taking advantage of school holidays to make some time.

Roast beef for tea (marinated by our fantastic butcher in yellow-box honey & rosemary - mmmm!) with baked potatos, carrot & zucchini. An apple & pear crumble and icecream for dessert - life is good!!

In the garden

Garden gnome?!


Grevillea

First snow peas from the garden today - yummm! I cleaned the pond out and got the pumps working again plus did running repairs on the vege garden sprinklers.

Light at the end of the tunnel

There is finally light at the end of the tunnel with some of my projects - 3 of them should wrap up (barring any extra changes they want) in the next couple of weeks. Boy I'll be glad about that! The last couple of weeks have been a real blur, I've just been flat out with working and trying to keep the house in some sort of order, cook decent meals etc. 1 more day of teaching this term though and then a couple of weeks off - yay! I had to even turn down some work - I was approached to do a couple of months of Access work onsite, full-time, which doesn't fit in with my life atm. He still wants to get together and discuss future work though which could work out well.

Helen & I have started challenging each other to do 1 extra thing around the house each day - just a small task like wipe cupboard fronts over etc. It's really making a difference in keeping the house presentable - we get to feel smug if the other person misses a day :) I'm planning on cleaning the freezer out as today's task - there are lots of UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) in there!!

Pete's off to watch the Aussie Rules again tonight - go Swannies! I'll dig through the DVDs and find a chick flick to watch - maybe Chocolat. I watched "How to make an American quilt" last Sat night - maybe I was just in the wrong mood, but I wasn't overly impressed. Very slow to start and then glossed over the stories of the other women too lightly imo.

I've been having a real baking week this week - I made a quiche and a chocolate cake for lunch on Wednesday, Billy & I made banana muffins last night, and I bought some choc-chips today to make some "cookies" - mmmmm, cookies!

Boy it's been cold here - we had a couple of nights at -1 and -2. Brrrr!!! Mum & Dad are up at the Atherton Tablelands on holidays - much warmer up there I'm sure!

Industrious day

I had a busy day yesterday. I was in the wrong sort of mood to go grocery shopping - I had a list but a few things jumped in the trolley that weren't on the list! I wasn't really in the mood for comparing prices - it was just throw things in. I was really dreading what the total would be but it wasn't too bad. No more treats for the rest of the fortnight though! Only need to get fruit & a roast from the butcher today.

Came home, unpacked and then made some strawberry yoghurt, apple & peach muffins from some leftovers in the fridge. They came out very yummy too - I was quite proud of myself! Dried out the leftover bread bits out of the freezer while the oven was on and made some breadcrumbs. Minced the meat I'd bought - I had to sharpen my knife first which was a new experience - it worked though!!! Made a banana cake while tea was cooking (bananas from the freezer - no way am I buying them at $13/kg!). I'm gradually cleaning the freezer out.

So a very industrious day in the kitchen - not to mention the 2 loads of washing and 3 baskets of ironing I got done too!

Also finished off the website changes I had to make for a resort company - it's using a template program which I don't like but hey, it's all money.

Billy is climbing over the top of me while I type - very hard to concentrate!!

Funeral impressions

• Tiny little white coffin that made me cry to look at it
• "Jesus Loves Me" hymn sung by members of their church, including her uncle
• Beautiful eulogy by LJ's very strong parents
• Sorrow but strength

We miss you sweetheart.

Fairly frugal day

I've been inspired by reading the discussion forum on the Simple Savings site (http://www.simplesavings.com.au/) so have had a fairly frugal day. I've made up some Thai Pumpkin soup with some pumpkin from the freezer and fruit crumble with the fruit that was languishing in the fruit bowl. My challenge is to not spend anything until Sunday. Except for when we go for the funeral through the week, but that can't be helped. I need to go through the freezer tomorrow and see what is hiding in there and be creative in using it up.

I did have to use the drier today though since it's been raining all day and the work clothes had to be washed. In fact there is still washing on the line from 3 days ago when it started raining! But I cut both Pete and Billy's hair so I guess it's a positive in the end!

Farewell LJ...

1/6/06 - 9/6/06.

You gave it a good fight sweetie..

Now I *really* hate tummy bugs..

I came down with it on Thursday night - I can't remember the last time I threw up, it's something I generally avoid at all costs, but I had no choice with this one. It wiped me out for several days, and I still have the attached cold and fuzzy head.

My niece was born on 1st June - I was so out of it that it took several days for it to sink in. She's about 6 weeks early and very ill. Hang in there little LJ! You have wonderful parents who love you dearly.

Work has been flat out - I am finally on a roll again with the Delphi project, plus a couple of websites. It's frustrating because I have a new laptop sitting here waiting to be set up and no time to do it!

Boo to the Tasmanian government for cancelling the Spirit of Tasmania service from Sydney. There goes our Xmas holiday - thanks very much.