Just as soon as little Peter Parker was feeling better, I somewhat foolishly decided it was 'time' to take a family trip to the carwash, for a much needed decent vacuum and wax....with a clever bribe of a 'treat' to ring in the non compliant members of the household.
It was very hot, kids were manky, King was cranky, but still I felt renewed as my car was being preened ( for the first time in a LONG time), and "Eileen" the car, as in 'come on Eileen', was glowing. It felt good to be a loving car owner.....
Then Dear Daughter started to whine, something about being hot and wanting to go home....
and before I could get to her and tell her to quit it, she puked all through my new clean car. Poor love.
I've learnt my lesson.
I think enough said.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Risky business.....
has degenerated since King Kamehamaha ( yeah hubby likes to strut around in 'man' sarongs and call himself that lol!.......stems from a period of me trying to persuade him to go to Hawaii, now I dont want to go cos he's put me off, but thats a whole other story...) and I used to think we engaged in it.
Nowadays it involves me organising what I always hope in my utopian dreams will prove to be an enjoyable and fun engaging experience with BOTH of my kids. Usually starts out great but ends with them wrestling each other to the floor and rolling around doing various grapples for a mutually 'needed'(insert here).................... pencil colour, paper, scissors, or in todays case, glass bead colours.
We are making a lovely suncatcher for Grandma's birthday, to give early as she is leaving for our 'greener pastures' on 2 January to set up house and start her new job. The suncatcher is to remind her when she gets lonely that she is loved. AND to remind her to enjoy the peace and quiet NOW before I get there with the kids...only 1/2 joking.....
Nowadays it involves me organising what I always hope in my utopian dreams will prove to be an enjoyable and fun engaging experience with BOTH of my kids. Usually starts out great but ends with them wrestling each other to the floor and rolling around doing various grapples for a mutually 'needed'(insert here).................... pencil colour, paper, scissors, or in todays case, glass bead colours.
We are making a lovely suncatcher for Grandma's birthday, to give early as she is leaving for our 'greener pastures' on 2 January to set up house and start her new job. The suncatcher is to remind her when she gets lonely that she is loved. AND to remind her to enjoy the peace and quiet NOW before I get there with the kids...only 1/2 joking.....
Gratitude smiles in my sleep.....
Now, did I mention that I am happy my boy is well again? No? Well let it be said, I am, no seriously. It was awful. A whole day of spiking temps and 'splurking'...I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
A sick little boy who lay quietly on the couch all day rellishing in Mummy's cuddles.....I will be selfish enough to admit that I LIKED that part......and when he crawled in to bed at 3 this morning for more Mumma love, I secretly smiled in my sleep thinking how lucky I am to have such a lovely family, full of SMUG gratitude.
THEN the sleep kicking started, and the sleep talking ( where I will mention he manages to out backchat his sister!) but that I managed to doze through.
It was the bouncing out of bed all perky and feeling better at 5AM! that wiped those smug smiles from my sleep deprived face. And I need my beauty sleep!
A sick little boy who lay quietly on the couch all day rellishing in Mummy's cuddles.....I will be selfish enough to admit that I LIKED that part......and when he crawled in to bed at 3 this morning for more Mumma love, I secretly smiled in my sleep thinking how lucky I am to have such a lovely family, full of SMUG gratitude.
THEN the sleep kicking started, and the sleep talking ( where I will mention he manages to out backchat his sister!) but that I managed to doze through.
It was the bouncing out of bed all perky and feeling better at 5AM! that wiped those smug smiles from my sleep deprived face. And I need my beauty sleep!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
and the answer to the million dollar question is.....
exactly 9 minutes! As long as it took to charge my little 'spidey's' remote controlled helicopter and for him to get impatient while Daddy was nipping out to get some ice for the afternoon festivities......and to NOT LISTEN (see recurring theme) to Mummy about waiting for a minute until Daddy aka 'HE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO THIS STUFF' will be home.
Did you know that remote contolled helicopters and ceiling fans dont mix? Or that they make an earthshaking sound kind of like what I picture Christmas in Beirut to sound?
OMG! I was bending over sweeping up the *ahem* dust bunnies from moving the couch to accomodate guests, when Spidey asked if he could try it yet...'No honey Daddy will be back in a minute'....then CRACK
Wasnt sure if it was my heart or an earthquake or we'd been bombed or or....
Hearing came back right around the second I noticed Spidey running around desperately picking up all the pieces, 'for Daddy to fix'. Me yelling, 'I told you to wait', wasn't what Spidey wanted to hear, he ran off to his room, I calmed myself down and tried to remember that this was all Santa's fault, nothing to do with my hard earned at all......
Spidey said, 'Santa will just bring me another one'.....me 'but Santa only comes once a year honey, why didn't you listen to me?' .......
but the momentary teensy amount of satisfaction of being 'right' my lower self felt was quickly replaced by an awful gut wrenching sinking 'THIS DOESNT HAPPEN IN THE CHRISTMAS MOVIES' moment when Spidey registered for the first time what he had actually done......and the sobs were break your mumma's heart. A tough lesson learn't, and the guilt of not being sure if this is Spideys or Santa's lesson still haunts me.....
He pulled himself together pretty quickly though folks, and wiped his salty tears off his sweet little face to announce with glee, "the 'wemoter' still works Mum!' and run off to play with his sis!
Did you know that remote contolled helicopters and ceiling fans dont mix? Or that they make an earthshaking sound kind of like what I picture Christmas in Beirut to sound?
OMG! I was bending over sweeping up the *ahem* dust bunnies from moving the couch to accomodate guests, when Spidey asked if he could try it yet...'No honey Daddy will be back in a minute'....then CRACK
Wasnt sure if it was my heart or an earthquake or we'd been bombed or or....
Hearing came back right around the second I noticed Spidey running around desperately picking up all the pieces, 'for Daddy to fix'. Me yelling, 'I told you to wait', wasn't what Spidey wanted to hear, he ran off to his room, I calmed myself down and tried to remember that this was all Santa's fault, nothing to do with my hard earned at all......
Spidey said, 'Santa will just bring me another one'.....me 'but Santa only comes once a year honey, why didn't you listen to me?' .......
but the momentary teensy amount of satisfaction of being 'right' my lower self felt was quickly replaced by an awful gut wrenching sinking 'THIS DOESNT HAPPEN IN THE CHRISTMAS MOVIES' moment when Spidey registered for the first time what he had actually done......and the sobs were break your mumma's heart. A tough lesson learn't, and the guilt of not being sure if this is Spideys or Santa's lesson still haunts me.....
He pulled himself together pretty quickly though folks, and wiped his salty tears off his sweet little face to announce with glee, "the 'wemoter' still works Mum!' and run off to play with his sis!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A Simple Christmas.....
An Oxymoron I hear you say? Well, yes ...and No. Long before we knew we would be trying to move at the busiest time of the year, my husband had declared he wanted a 'Darwin' Xmas, like when he was young. Read: Prawns and Beer ha ha maybe with a garnish!
Last year, though I must confess to enjoying attempting a (thoroughly unpractical in this damned heat) 'Nigella's Christmas' I was all too happy to succumb to his wishes, with a *slight* embellishment on the menu. We have extended to a seafood buffet, still within a reasonable budget and accepted the kind offers of help from my dear Cuzzy. We simply must still have our family traditional Christmas additions : Tomato Pie and Pavlova. Since discussing the 'menu' the poor little kids ( known from here on in as the 'wrangers' for obvious reasons) have both been very ill with tonsilitis...so we are considering simply dipping strawberries ( or our fingers) into white chocolate whipped cream.......
As we are 'downsizing' (ha) I did not buy the usual craft selection for the kids to keep them entertained. Rather, I gathered my wits (and this is no small feat believe me) and made a list of old fashioned xmas decorations we could make together with simple stuff from around the house....and they have really enjoyed stapling their fingers to strips of coloured paper...I mean making colourful paper chains for the curtain rods, instead of hanging tinsel....and making lovely candle holders with empty beer bottles....I saved up all year for these two and Hubby was keen to help too, funny that. See photo below of their handiwork. AND while I was worried the old fake tree wouldnt make it thru another season, we didn't want to buy another one just before we go .....with a lot of 'backcombing' the tree puffed out to an acceptable wiriness and though it is leaning to one side with the weight of tinsel, they are extremely proud of their decorations. Which is more important, and with a glass of bubbles and a 'relaxed neck' it looks mighty fine!
This year we also decided on one main family present, namely a Wii, which I will definitely impress the kids with my deft manouvres and cunning skill.....if I dont trip over and hang myself on the cords!! They will love it as they are sure to beat me, and yes sadly I WILL be trying. Nothing is better for making you feel like a success than beating your 5 year old in a game.
Wishing you all a fabulous Christmas and hope you can spend it with those you love.
x
NB. Apologies for the photos, I thought they said you couldn't break this thing!
The countdown begins....
Rather than wake up in cold sweats screaming out to nobody in particular ( DH is a very heavy sleeper!) I thought as we are approaching the final month before we move, it MIGHT be more practical to actually have some kind of plan......
Well here it is: get rid of everything! or if you prefer the new age term to 'declutter'....a ruthless gem of Zen wisdom, cluttered house, cluttered mind. Or is that Martha Stewart....hmmm not sure but whatever it is, until this very day I had scoffed at all those reality shows where they piled stuff into skips...I always wanted a back shot of the owners tearing the house apart looking for that 'something' they had ruthlessly tossed aside. I have a love of history, of sentimental 'stuff' eg, grandma's silver serviette holders, her sewing machine etc. However one look at the quotes I received for interstate removals for all our gear had me stuttering for over an hour and feeling as though I had been slapped in the face with a wet fish. So I am making an earnest effort to harden me up.
Plan of attack: get started early on a caffeine high and start somewhere 'neutral' where 'heavy' decisions won't have to be made, I don't think I am ready for that just yet......and go hard before I pass out in this heat (we are in the wet season up here and bathroom is 36 degrees and 90% humidity......and to think I used to steam my face on purpose when I was young)
9am. Post coffee buzz saw me crouched on all fours sorting through all the stuff under the bathroom sink. Sheesh, what was I thinking? Had I been reading armageddon stories? I am ashamed to say I threw out 2 garbage bags and still have a couple of months worth of toiletries.....*ahem*
10am. Quick stop for a gloat to hubby about how tough er how ORGANISED I am and a drink. Then turned to the kids bedrooms......
Not quite as simple as it sounds......as I have pointed out I am a notorious horder....still have the notes we passed around in school ( think ....'I love Bon Jovi!!' 'oh yeah, he's soooo hot' lol )....the kids first outfits, even the first rose DH gave me..... Every time I make an effort to 'go through that box once and for all' it ends up with me sitting on the floor with a glass of red, surrounded by old photos, laughing through stabs of nostalgia....and the box being put hastily away before hubby notices in the morning. The trouble is it seems I have bred a litter of pack rats!
Getting ruthless meant that any broken or now unloved toy or Tshirt that was now a 'belly grazer' had to go. I marched into my son's room full of enthusiasm, only to have him spy me (damn, must have ruffled that bag, had waited until he was engrossed in his play) and come screaming in, launching across the room, 'Noooooooooooo, thats my Faaaaaavourite', when I had hastily picked up a dusty one legged Ninja Turtle which had been bought from the Op shop for 20c 2 years ago. And so it went, yep you guessed it. ALL FAVOURITES. Even the 2 sized too small head gets stuck and savages his ears when you take it off lycra swim shirt.
It was obvious to all, new tactics were needed. More devious, ruthless, sneaky mummy tactics. Mwa ha ha ha.
Stay tuned!
Well here it is: get rid of everything! or if you prefer the new age term to 'declutter'....a ruthless gem of Zen wisdom, cluttered house, cluttered mind. Or is that Martha Stewart....hmmm not sure but whatever it is, until this very day I had scoffed at all those reality shows where they piled stuff into skips...I always wanted a back shot of the owners tearing the house apart looking for that 'something' they had ruthlessly tossed aside. I have a love of history, of sentimental 'stuff' eg, grandma's silver serviette holders, her sewing machine etc. However one look at the quotes I received for interstate removals for all our gear had me stuttering for over an hour and feeling as though I had been slapped in the face with a wet fish. So I am making an earnest effort to harden me up.
Plan of attack: get started early on a caffeine high and start somewhere 'neutral' where 'heavy' decisions won't have to be made, I don't think I am ready for that just yet......and go hard before I pass out in this heat (we are in the wet season up here and bathroom is 36 degrees and 90% humidity......and to think I used to steam my face on purpose when I was young)
9am. Post coffee buzz saw me crouched on all fours sorting through all the stuff under the bathroom sink. Sheesh, what was I thinking? Had I been reading armageddon stories? I am ashamed to say I threw out 2 garbage bags and still have a couple of months worth of toiletries.....*ahem*
10am. Quick stop for a gloat to hubby about how tough er how ORGANISED I am and a drink. Then turned to the kids bedrooms......
Not quite as simple as it sounds......as I have pointed out I am a notorious horder....still have the notes we passed around in school ( think ....'I love Bon Jovi!!' 'oh yeah, he's soooo hot' lol )....the kids first outfits, even the first rose DH gave me..... Every time I make an effort to 'go through that box once and for all' it ends up with me sitting on the floor with a glass of red, surrounded by old photos, laughing through stabs of nostalgia....and the box being put hastily away before hubby notices in the morning. The trouble is it seems I have bred a litter of pack rats!
Getting ruthless meant that any broken or now unloved toy or Tshirt that was now a 'belly grazer' had to go. I marched into my son's room full of enthusiasm, only to have him spy me (damn, must have ruffled that bag, had waited until he was engrossed in his play) and come screaming in, launching across the room, 'Noooooooooooo, thats my Faaaaaavourite', when I had hastily picked up a dusty one legged Ninja Turtle which had been bought from the Op shop for 20c 2 years ago. And so it went, yep you guessed it. ALL FAVOURITES. Even the 2 sized too small head gets stuck and savages his ears when you take it off lycra swim shirt.
It was obvious to all, new tactics were needed. More devious, ruthless, sneaky mummy tactics. Mwa ha ha ha.
Stay tuned!
Greener Pastures....
Or rather, a new start, seeing as we are moving to a drought prone state lol!
The last few years have felt like treading water and finally in 2009 the life raft got a hole in it and we were sinking, and just when we thought we were done, we came up for air, and it seems the storms of the years past were beginning to blow over, maybe we could make our happy life here after all......but when drifting with the currents there is always a potential for a spin out of nowhere. When we got back from our much needed holiday to Vietnam my parents announced that they'd had enough and Mum must have been listening to our ramblings about making a new start. 'I hope you haven't changed your mind about NSW, we are selling up and moving there'...apparently like YESTERDAY. Wish I'd known as I might have gone a little easier on the Margeuritas at Mango Resort.....or not, but thats a whole other story *wink MIL* so with much late night discourse and many many merlots, DH and I eventually remembered that it was our idea initially, and in the words of many a great philosopher, 'WHY NOT?' So we're moving to Mid North Coast New South Wales. What a mouthful. Looks NOICE, but I've never been there!
So please join us on our new family adventure, a fresh new start for all of us, and dreams of starting our shiny happy life at El Rancho Ryan (the boundaries of which are yet to be found........) where we will remember to stop and breathe, laugh daily and enjoy the simple things in life together.
How strange, it is surprisingly easy to write your heart out to cyber space after all! Thanks for reading ;)
The last few years have felt like treading water and finally in 2009 the life raft got a hole in it and we were sinking, and just when we thought we were done, we came up for air, and it seems the storms of the years past were beginning to blow over, maybe we could make our happy life here after all......but when drifting with the currents there is always a potential for a spin out of nowhere. When we got back from our much needed holiday to Vietnam my parents announced that they'd had enough and Mum must have been listening to our ramblings about making a new start. 'I hope you haven't changed your mind about NSW, we are selling up and moving there'...apparently like YESTERDAY. Wish I'd known as I might have gone a little easier on the Margeuritas at Mango Resort.....or not, but thats a whole other story *wink MIL* so with much late night discourse and many many merlots, DH and I eventually remembered that it was our idea initially, and in the words of many a great philosopher, 'WHY NOT?' So we're moving to Mid North Coast New South Wales. What a mouthful. Looks NOICE, but I've never been there!
So please join us on our new family adventure, a fresh new start for all of us, and dreams of starting our shiny happy life at El Rancho Ryan (the boundaries of which are yet to be found........) where we will remember to stop and breathe, laugh daily and enjoy the simple things in life together.
How strange, it is surprisingly easy to write your heart out to cyber space after all! Thanks for reading ;)
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