Chuffed

I'm really feeling rather chuffed with myself right at the moment. First day back at school after two and a half weeks of sleep-ins, pyjama days and a complete and utter lack of rushing and I managed to get everyone ready, packed and out of the door on time. I worked today and for dinner we had a delicious Beef and Red Wine Stew that I'd popped into the freezer a couple of weeks ago. I'm working again tomorrow and dinner for then is taken care of too - Spag bol that I made over the weekend and froze for Wednesday night. School clothes have been laid out ready for the morning and I've bought fresh rolls for tomorrow's lunches. My organisational skills appear to know no bounds.

Don't worry, it's only the first week of term. I'm pretty sure we'll be hitting the tinned baked beans and toast for dinner, rummaging through the ironing basket and resorting to lunch orders at some point through the term.

No Time To Blog

I have the mums here for knitting - they're busy with difficult things like jumpers (sweaters for you lot in the US) while I'm onto yet another scarf. At least this one is with fluffy pretty wool so it'll look a little bit different from the other 932 scarves I've made.

Merry Christmas!

No, I haven't gone completely loopy. I'm off to a Christmas In July dinner with a few of the neighbours tonight. There are five households involved and we 'made' the couple with the biggest house play host. Sounds mean but theirs is they only place we'll all fit comfortably into (and they volunteered for that very reason!). We've divied up the menu to come up with five courses and are taking/making a couple of things each - I've made two new recipes which is a bit risky so I'm hoping they'll be well received. The first is a Moroccan Sweet Potato, Carrot and Chickpea soup that, from this afternoon's taste test, is delicious but rather spicy. The second is a Sticky Date Cheesecake. That's the one I'm not sure about. It can be served warm or at room temperature and has a warm caramel-y sauce to pour over it. Fingers crossed it's going to come out of the tin okay otherwise everyone will be getting a scoop of gloop in their dessert bowls!

We've got enough food to feed a small nation, Christmas Crackers, Secret Santa gifts, drinks on ice and kids spending the night with their grandparents. Now I have to get myself showered and prettied up and then it's across the road and down a bit for FUN FUN FUN.

Quickly Running In... To Whinge

I've been working the past couple of days while the school-teaching Hubby has been enjoying the school hol's with the kids. Why is it that when he comes home from work it's to a nice tidy house, a nice meal for dinner and the laundry is generally pretty up-to-date but when he's home and I'm working I come home to house that looks like it threw up on itself. Okay, that's possibly just a bit of a bitchy over-reaction but dammit, the house was messier when I got home that it was when I left.

Is anyone else having trouble with facebook? I haven't been able to get in all day and I may well be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Offspring #2 has a cold and has ever so kindly shared it, in varying degrees, with the rest of us. I'm doing my best to fight it but when you're allergic to pretty much everything that contains good doses of vitamin C it does make it a little difficult. I've hit my fallback position- hot tea and buttered toast. On the plus side she's had a cold for three days and hasn't had an asthma attack yet - this is actually HUGE news - it's the first time ever that she's deviated from the regular pattern of 'onset of cold followed two hours later by asthma attack followed by several days of misery and nights of wheezing, coughing, puking and no sleep'. I don't want to jinx things by saying that this is a massive development and we're a teeny little bit excited so I just won't tell you that.

Anyway, whining aside... don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already. It closes at 12noon (my time) Thursday so hop to it.

There Goes Another Weekend

For a stay-at-home, nothing-special kind of weekend we seem to have fitted heaps in and once again Sunday draws to a close leaving me exhausted and looking forward to both kids being in school tomorrow so I have a chance to catch my breath.

We had a very special visitor over the weekend. Sprinkles the kindy teddy-bear came home with Offspring #2 on Friday afternoon and has been dragged along everywhere so we could write about all his exciting adventures in his special scrapbook. Here's Sprinkles and #2 playing playstation. Apparently he wasn't very good at it. But she didn't score at all so I'm not sure her opinion is all that valid.

Saturday saw bright sunshine and no rain. Yes, a good chance to catch up on some washing - exciting stuff. The we ran down the hill to visit with Hubby's grandmother, Mumma. I had a bundle of home-cooked meals in the freezer for her and, having spoken to her the day before on the phone, wanted to get them to her as soon as I could. Mumma's about as fussy at #2 when it comes to food so my general rule is that if #2 likes it, Mumma will. That said, Mumma flat out refuses to eat spag bol so she got a couple of portions of cottage pie, some vegie soup, pea and ham soup and some frozen stewed apricots. All were welcomed and more meals have been requested, a request I'll be very happy to fulfill.

This morning was Offspring #1's footy game. Three games into the season and the team is starting to work as... a team and they kicked a few goals and a few more points today. The first game they scored nothing at all so they're definitely improving. #1 took a couple of good marks, made a few great kicks and got into the thick of the action more than he has till now, all of which was lovely to watch. Then after some lunch and baskets and baskets and baskets of ironing we wandered across the road to drink some bubbly (I know, any excuse!) and eat birthday cake. Then home again, dinner, baths for the kidlets, the obligatory yelling that goes with hairwashing and now the kids are in bed, Dr Who is on tv and my lovely Hubby has made me a cuppa to go with a slice of seriously yummy banana cake I baked yesterday.

And your weekend? How was it? What did you get up to?

Making Myself Laugh

Hubby left a bowl of choccies in front of me on the kitchen bench. Then he went and sat on the couch. Then he realised all the choccies were in front of me. You know, on the kitchen bench.

He said, "I bet you can't throw one of those choccies over to me here on the couch."

And I, the ever loving and supportive wife, decided that I should show him he was absolutely right. So I threw them everywhere but at him. Completely and utterly on purpose. And then laughed myself silly at the look on his face.

I crack myself up!

Done In

I worked the first three days of the week and just about died of exhaustion by Wednesday night. I know many of you work full-time, have kids, get meals on the table and do all the other wife and mum stuff but, Lordy, I am stuffed. My feet hurt, I have no energy left and my brain has turned to mush.

And I'm going to do it all over again next week. By the time I get finished I'll be a gibbering wreck. But I'll be a gibbering wreck who can buy another truck-load of crushed limestone.

Ah-Ah-Ah.... CHOO!!!!

Remember the raging sore throat from a few days ago? Well it's turned into the head cold from hell. I am so glad that both kids are at school today and I get to have a bit of a break. After I finish this post the most energetic thing I'm planning to do until pick-up time is use the remote to change the tv channel.

The real bummer is that now I won't be able to make it to the blogger's meetup tonight. I was really looking forward to going and had everything arranged so it could happen but with a totally snotty nose, stuffed up head and next to no voice it's the last thing I feel like doing. Oh, and while I'm reasonably generous I don't think this is something I should be sharing.

Sunday Morning Randomness

• I have a raging sore throat. The kind where it hurts to swallow, feels like your throat may be on fire and while you want to clear your throat constantly doing so will result in instant decimating pain. Buckets of hot tea, along with hot buttered crumpets dripping with honey do seem to have some restorative qualities but only for as long as the tea and crumpets last. Then it's back to firey pain.
• Along with that I appear to have lost my voice. Well, it comes and goes. Makes life interesting when I go to tell the kids off and nothing comes out. They're still at the stunned wonderment stage of that but I can see it morphing into crazed laughter in the next few hours.
• Went to an outdoor concert last night - Jack Jones, Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet. A huge 80's night that I dragged hubby along to for a rather more expensive than usual date night because I LOVED Spandau Ballet way back when. Jack Jones was boring - I admit I didn't like him back then either but he was playing acoustic 'arty' versions of his songs so you couldn't entirely tell what the song was anyway. Tears for Fears were spectacular, Spandau Ballet were less so. Ok, that's not really fair - they were great they just didn't play many of their big hits, which really, is what I paid a heck of a lot of money to see.
• Have discovered (after last nights concert) why I don't go out very often. People shit me. Especially one man who sat behind us and talked at the top of his lungs the whole way through an outdoor concert so we were forced to listen to his views, opinions and thoughts on every conceivable topic from how Gary Kemp is the greatest song writer to what started the war in Iraq to how to buy the best fish. No I'm not kidding. I came very close, as the encore started, to suggesting that since he talked the whole way through the concert he might consider shutting up so we could listen to just the last two or so songs. I didn't do it but I kinda wish I had.
• Hubby, the wonderful handy-man that he is, fixed my broken clothes drier earlier in the week. Then my washer died. Then the drier died again. Fun times with pouring rain and two children who insist on filth-i-fying themselves constantly. The repairman was called and arrived yesterday. $200 later both machines work again. Much better than $1000 to replace them.
• Due to the previous item I rediscovered the laundromat. The local one is actually very nice (in my previous life as a young single in a close-to-the-city suburb they were kind of dodgy and not all that nice). And I discovered a newly opened second hand book exchange that was also very nice. I may rhaphodise further on this in another post.
• My children are currently playing with their Beado's. Quiet bliss. Until they have a fight over something inane and pointless.
• I have been giving my slow-cooker a working out this week. It's responding well to the challenges and boy oh boy have we been eating some yummy meals. Even Offspring #2 has conceded that some of them were okay.
• The backyard is looking somewhat jungle like and is in need of some serious attention. Sadly I am lacking the motivation to provide that attention.
• School is back this week and I am torn between relief and sadness. I have enjoyed having hubby and the kids around, lazy mornings, getting stuff done around the house and doing things together. But I will enjoy the return to routine and the possibility that the house might stay clean longer than four minutes.

And now I better hang out some of the washing that my newly-repaired machine is churning its way through as I attempt to catch up. Then it's onto the ironing. Fun times here!

We're Back

We had a ball on our brief getaway. We caught up with lots of friends, played with the kids and did fun stuff and have come home absolutely exhausted.

There's lots going on at the moment with Hubby's birthday tomorrow and a trip to the zoo, another week of school holidays to navigate and negotiate, promised sleepovers for one child and playdates for the other to follow up on. As well as new recipes I'm wanting to try, more yard work than I want to even think about and some pretty new wool I bought so I can get back to doing some knitting.

For now though my bed is calling to me. LOUDLY.

For Your General Hilarity

So I went along to one of the local high-schools to do some relief teaching today. It was my first real day of relief back in a high school - the days I did earlier in the term were all in the VET area and I was doing work placements. That's where some of the kids go out to the workplace one or two days of the week. It counts as a school subject and towards their graduation. I was sorting the placements and setting up paper trails, etc. It's what I love doing and generally involved 1-1 contact with the kids with the odd quick info session thrown in rather than up-front proper teaching of a subject. I've also been doing the odd bit of relief at the local primary school - the very one my kids attend - but that's an entirely different kettle of fish.

Relief teachers are, as a general rule, paid well and treated badly. They get the grunt jobs, the rotten classes, playground duty and no breaks. That's okay though because, in my case it's only a couple of days a week, and like I said you get paid well. you also have the added bonus of no lesson prep or marking to do. Just walking in, teach it, and walk out.

So, my day today?

Form class - take attendance, read notices and wait for the next bell to ring.

Period 1 - Yr 8, SOSE, or social studies for those of us who went to school 20 or so years ago.

Period 2 - Year 10 Dance

Recess - 20 minute break - run from one end of the school to the other to go to the loo, gulp half a cup of tea and a biscuit and then run back to the other side of the school.

Period 3 - Year 11 Dance

Period 4 - Year 10 Maths - the TAGS group (Talented and Gifted, as in seriously smart kids)

Lunch - 20 minute break. During which I have yard duty.

Period 5 - Year 9 Dance

Does anyone see the problem(s) here?

Me teaching DANCE? I'm a huge klutz. HUGE. With all the rhythm of a stumbling baby elephant. No problem - we'll make the kids work on the computer and do some research instead.

Me teaching MATHS!!!! Umm, yeah. See numbers really aren't my thing. I don't play card games because of the adding up stuff. And I've got the TAGS group. Who are doing algebra revision. HAHAHAHAHAHA. And they're foolish enough to think I can help when they get stuck! Oh the sheer hilarity. Luckily I did what all good teachers do and turned it around on the kids and had them explain to each other - I had about three kids up the front with whiteboard markers instructing the kids who were stuck. It worked a treat.

The SOSE bit I should have been able to handle - it was my minor after all and they were doing an assessment so really I just needed to shut them up and supervise them. One small problem. Part of the assessment was creating a graph from data that showed both temperature and rainfall. Hmmm, back to the maths thing really. Luckily it was an assessment piece so I wasn't allowed to help them.

By the end of the day I was starving and my brain hurt. I have never been so glad to see 3pm.

What's This In The Laundry Basket?

Don't panic! It's just my turn to wash the doll's clothes for kindy. But it gave a few people cause for thought when they saw that laundry basket during the week LOL.

Not Happy, Jan!

Let me start by telling you how much I love the delicious. magazine. It has contributions from lots of my favourite foodie-types, both local and international. In every issue I can find something to make for dinner that very night, something special to serve and impress guests and something interesting that will challenge me either in the cooking arena or taste-wise. In fact I love it some much that about 18 months ago I asked Hubby for a subscription for my birthday. It was duly organised and now I get my copy of delicious. delivered to my door each and every month. And that's where I start being not quite so pleased.

There's no discount on the subscription. Lots of mags offer a percentage discount when you subscribe, you know 10% off or 3 free issues or some such. Not here, but that's okay because I love the mag so I'd buy it at full price from the newsagent anyway, right?

Generally the current issue has been in the shops several days, or on some occasions two full weeks, before my issue arrives in my mail box. I used to subscribe to a scrapbooking mag and they made a big deal of the fact that it arrived at your house before it arrived in the store. And it always did. This one? Not so much.

You know the freebies that sometimes come with mags? Yeah, subscribers of delicious. don't tend to get them. We get the odd thing - the free calico shopping bag a couple of months ago was one that we did get (nice and all but nothing I don't already have 15 or so of). But the salad servers sometime last year or the recipe booklet this month? No, they didn't go to subscribers. Why not? I don't know, but as an unimpressed subsriber I guess they figure they've already goto our money so they don't have to entice us with pretty things.

So tell me, why would I bother with a mag that treats its subscribers so poorly? Any other magazine I've bought has made a big deal of its subscribers - special offers, discounts, lots of freebies, etc. I guess it's a good thing that I really do like delicious. month after month. I certainly won't be renewing my subscription but I'll probably continue to buy the magazine. The day it comes out, with freebies attached.

Bit and Bobs

Yes, I'm still here and no, you haven't been abandoned. Gee, working three days last week just about did me in. And before you all have a go at me... yes I fully accept that I'm a total wimp. In my defense I did have twelve or so weeks of holidays where I didn't do very much so a week of working, getting kids to school and from school and after school activities, and everywhere else they needed to be, attending parent info sessions for each kid at the school, entertaining, arranging play-dates and whatever else needed to be done left me completely and utterly stuffed!

But I did a bit of cooking and made some tasty new dinners, a seriously fab baked cheesecake and some yummy cookies. Those recipes will be coming along shortly. Or on Thursday, when I'm not working.

I also oversaw the delivery of 16 tons of crushed limestone and now hubby is working very hard making his own limestone block retaining wall and work on the house has begun. There's lots of work to do and it's going to take a long time to get done. A seriously long time. Like pretty much forever. Probably the kids will grow up, move out, get married, have their own kids and we'll finally have an extra bedroom for the grandkids to sleep over. But don't tell hubby I said that. Photos will be forthcoming at each and every exciting moment. You'll be well sick of the reno pictures before I'm sick of the reno's. Although I'm already sick of the dust - it's a little bit like living back in Red Dirt Central with a fine coating of dust over every single surface of the house!

At night when I was too tired to go near the computer for very long (though I did try to do twitter updates so you'd know I was around) I ploughed through some of the books on my bedside table. I went a bit crazy with my requests from the local library and then they all came in pretty much at once. Our library allows you to borrow up to 10 books at a time for three weeks on each card. I used up all of my card and most of Offspring #1's. I was almost pleased when I couldn't get into a couple of the books I'd borrowed simply because it meant I was finished with them quickly and could get onto the next one. I know, I'm an idiot. But I did find a couple that I enjoyed and one that I loved. Loved. LOVED. I'll do a post on that tomorrow.

And when I was having a quiet play on the computer I found a couple of new blogs that I'm loving to bits. I'm going to add them into my sidebar and do proper introductions just as soon as I can (hello Bush Babe!).

I also got my hair done and it's blonder than last time and getting really quite long. The blonde is to hide the white. An intersting side-note - redheads don't tend to go grey, we go pure, sparkling white. Like Tweety-bird's Granny. I figure it'll all blend in together until the white eventually takes over. The long is just because I feel like it. It's kinda my last hurrah before I turn 40. And have white hair.

And I've spent the past week chasing a mouse who has taken up residence in my house. He is driving me insane! He successfully evades traps, seems immune to lavender and bay leaves (mice don't generally like them and they can be a good natural deterrent) and has become quite brave about sticking his head out of little hidey-holes when he thinks we're not watching. I've now stuffed every hole I could find with steel wool and ordered hubby to kill the little bastard. Enough Mrs Nice Mummy, fair means or foul that mouse is going.

Now I'm going to sort school bags, lay out uniforms and generally get things organised for the morning.

Work

Yay! I've got some work over the next couple of weeks.

After finishing up my last job in December I was on paid holidays until the end of January so technically I wasn't unemployed until just a couple of weeks ago. I've panned to do relief teaching a couple of days each week but of course school has only just gone back so no-one's off sick or out on courses, therefore I haven't had any work. It's exactly as I expected and to tell the truth I haven't minded too much - it was nice to spend the first couple of weeks getting the kids sorted out with school, especially with Offspring #2 starting kindy. But... by yesterday when both kids were at school and all my chores were done by 10.42am I was going a wee bit stir-crazy.

Then this morning's phone call came - would I help out in a slightly sticky situation for 6 or so days? Um.... Yes please!!!

And the money I'll earn will pay for the tree-lopper I've booked, the pest control man, and the 16 tonne of crushed limestone that is being delivered today. Very nice timing indeed!

Things That Make Me Smile

Nothing big, just little bits that are making me smile at the moment:

- Offspring #1 seems to have settled into the school year very nicely. He likes his teacher, has organised himself a couple of playdates and is happy to head off to school each morning. It's a proud Mummy smile, tempered with a bit of a relief-style smile.

- In a similar vein, because school is going well #1 is just that bit easier to cope with. He's a routine kinda kid (he gets it from me, poor kid) so by the end of the long, long, summer holidays he was a little bit beside himself. Now we're back into a proper routine he's feeling more settled and we're getting to see his normal sweet self instead of the devil-child he has been lately. I've been getting lots of hugs, lots of "I love you's" and the odd cheeky smack on the butt as he wanders past. That's definitely a relieved smile.

- One of my bestest bud's called me this morning. Normally when the phone rings just after 7 in the morning I'd not be expecting great news, instead I heard a chirpy "hello!" and got the best surprise. She was trying to work out something on facebook and it wouldn't work so instead of emailing to ask me she gave me a quick call. She's still on the other side of the country but it was so good to hear her voice. That one was a happy, happy, happy smile.

- I have three different books on the go at the moment. I don't normally read three at the same time but I wasn't loving the first one so started on the second and didn't love that either and started on the third and now I just pick up whichever one is closest. I keep getting the characters confused and the plot-lines tangled and, when you consider that one is a gothic-y ghost-y story, one's a murder mystery and the other one is a sci-fi novel that's just funny in itself. This one's a "yes, I'm a fool" kind of smile.

- Last night I frightened the crap out of myself. Then completely cracked myself up when I realised what had scared me. I was sitting at the computer and could see a light flashing in the back yard. We've a few solar lights in the garden but this was more like a flashlight. Of course in my head that meant there was someone in the yard. With a flashlight. And probably a big knife. To murder us all in our sleep. You get where I'm going with this right? I freaked out long enough for my breathing to become shallow and my heart-rate to rocket. Then I realised that the reason I could see the light was because the kitchen blinds were up. Which meant... it was my mirror ball in the back patio reflecting the kitchen lights. Doh! That there is a "I'm a complete moron and I'm glad hubby wasn't here to see this ridiculous-ness" kind of smile. Actually I laughed out loud at myself, partly in sheer relief.

- And the last one for today belongs to Offspring #2. At the moment she's having a growth spurt with regards to her language skills. She's discovered some big words and she's loving them. Certainly, definitely and seriously are at the top of her list and each time she comes out with them I just smile and smile. Then go into another room and giggle. She certainly is funny. And she definitely knows how to use them in the right context. And she makes me smile, seriously.

The Finished Product

This will be the last post on the new tv unit. I promise!

It's all together and in place, everything has been relocated (and I still have quite a bit of space to fill - insert evil laugh here!) and the old tv cabinet has been removed to the carport while Hubby decides what to do with it. I'm not entirely sure I made the right choice colour-wise. Maybe I should have gone with the black? Oh well, it's too late now. I do love that there's heaps of space, all the cords that used to hang down all over the place are hidden away neatly and this piece is actually slimmer than the old one so we've gained a weeny little bit of extra space in the living area. This last one is actually very important when you realise how small the space in my house really is.

So.... here are the pics. They're a bit um... rubbish, partly because I waited until it was dark to take the pics and the lighting wasn't great and partly because my batteries were on their last legs.

Number 1 - Hubby putting it all together last week.

Number 2 - Doors, doors and more doors!

Number 3 - The finished product. We're waiting on another sliding door to cover the drawers down the right hand side and some glass shelves for the top outside sections - they should be in stock in a couple of weeks. We'll also pick up some door handles then because we were a bit dopey and forgot about them.

Number 4 - And here it is with the lights inside the cabinets on.

Wishful Thinking

My whole house looks like the living room threw up across it at the moment. Whoever tells you that Ikea furniture is easy to put together is lying. And probably doesn't have a husband who is sick as a dog but making a Herculean effort to get the damn thing looking like what it's supposed to. I had high hopes that by now we'd be snuggled up on the couch watching Friday night tv and sneaking admiring glances at the cabinets during the ad-breaks. Instead I'm following orders, listening to him swear under his breath and wincing in sympathy each time he tries to cough up a lung. Hubby has an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning and then we're heading out for the day to catch up with some old friends so that pretty much wipes out Saturday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by Sunday afternoon things will be a little more settled both living room-wise and Hubby being a wee bit more healthy-wise.

Furniture Shopping. Day TWO.

Yes, we headed back to Ikea today but along the way we checked out a few more stores. I found one gorgeous huge buffet/hutch kinda thing that I seriously loved. Only problem is that I need to seriously get a job (more on that in another post) to save up for it! But, as I strive to maintain a positive outlook, it should be noted that out of approximately 3,492 pieces we saw I found ONE that I liked for the dining area.

We did get a modular-type series of boxes thing from Ikea to be the entertainment unit (ie hold the tv, dvd player, video player, play-station, etc, etc, etc and all the associated stuff that goes with them). I do really like it, not least because it has lovely clean lines, is white and has enough shelves, doors, drawers and general space to house all our collected crap. Judging by Hubby's somewhat colourful language as he's putting it all together I'm thinking he's a little bit less in the 'loving it' zone.

Woe! My Aching Feet

We have traipsed from one end of the known world to just about the other in search of furniture today. All with both kids in tow! We started out at Ikea - where we found exactly what we wanted - but decided to have a bit more of a look around. We hadn't looked at proper 'pieces of furniture' (ie not in a flat-pack!) for ages, not since last time we couldn't find what we were after. Hubby convinced me to go looking so we looked and looked and looked. And found nothing and nothing and nothing. But we did have fun laughing at some spectacularly horrible pieces. And were horrified at some of the shoddy work that was being passed off at ridiculously high prices.

So guess where we're off to tomorrow? Yep, the hour plus drive back to Ikea to get what we found first thing this morning. This time tomorrow night we'll be knee-deep in flat-packs, glass doors and allen keys.