Me time.................

It is such a rarity that I give myself time...for....just...whatever.  Being both a woman and a mum (brilliant deduction going on about now no doubt lol) it seems ingrained that to spend any time 'just' on 'me' is a shocking waste of my precious time and is designed to maximise one's guilt complex.  However today I find myself in such a rare position of utter nothingness that I had to force myself to use it as I wanted to.

 Over the weekend the King had to fly back to Darwin to finalise his work contract .......
*GULP, but we are NOT thinking about that today either*
........so the kids and I had a day out at the shops, just taking our time and then a delicious coffee and a play (I must admit I caved in to the McCafe which just goes to show you can have ideals and be a normal person who needs some time out too.......without feeling too much  like a big fat hypocrite......actually it helps if you park with your 'kill the clown' stickers facing away from the front door) then came home and flicked the kids around like giant dusters, opened a new box of pot pourri (at least the place SMELLS clean, so I'm halfway there) and had bedroom cleaning races...so the place is presentable, and no need for me to spend the day cleaning for once.

And so I find myself with time to do.........ANYTHING..................I......................WANT!  *dizzy grin*

So, I have banished the guilt fairy and enjoyed an awesome day off to potter around, went for a window shop, have taken the dog for a walk in lovely winter sun, planted some more herbs for our kitchen garden, tidied up (its embedded sadly), now time for a cup of tea and a bit of a daydream before my nap (night duty tonight).....ahhhhhhhhhh.

It has struck midday and funnily enough, I haven't shrivelled into a prune, or turned into a troll (well any bigger than this morning anyway), DOCS havent shown up to demand to know why there are dishes in the sink and better still we are off to Mum's for dinner tonight so no need to organise anything.

I think I am going to love Daydream Mondays from now on.

I hope you have some time out for yourself this week too.

x

Bad mummy.................to be or not to be?

Today when I got home from a morning shift, I found a gaggle of the 'kids from the block' hanging around our front porch and our apparently uber cool ever so slight hill, which presents many options for a gleefull afternoon on scateboards or scooters or just plain old goofing around.  Infact, now that I see it so well loved, I can't see how we looked past this hillock in the first place.  It made my heart sing to see my kids just being kids and playing with the neigbours and all being OUTSIDE.  BEING KIDS, OUTSIDE.....

After the obligatory snack and drink offers, the kids have all gone their separate ways after hours of playing together (or 'hanging out' as I have been instructed to say by my daughter) and one straggler encouraged our kids to go to the local soccer oval for a kick.  The problem is.....it's *slightly* out of sight.  SO, I have to trust them, or rather trust myself that I have given them the necessary life skills to be safe and look after one another. 

I have slight heart palpitations...helped somewhat by the 'medicinal' redwine the King just poured me.  He also kindly reminded me that this is why we moved...so that the kids COULD get out from behind their 6 foot chain mesh fence and learn to be kids again, in a small wholesome community.    But, it begs the question from my ever guilt ridden mind ( I REALLY should have been born Catholic, I would be great in confession)  am I a BAD MUMMY for letting them do this?

Inspired by the writing of the blogger Free Range Kid (http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/s), and my own beliefs (namely that kids need to be able to learn to be kids!) I am trying to loosen the rope a little.  What do you think?








Ok.......I'm not proud to admit it, but moments after posting this I caved in and had to go and have a peep at my babies.   Oh well, something to work on ;)

Sunshine, scooters and thistle fairies............

What a beautiful day...............after a difficult start lol.  Yesterday we woke up seemingly in the throes of hell, the squids had woken up at a hideous 5am and it was too cold and too bleeping early to get up dammit (read NOT a morning person here....and believe me I HAVE tried), but there was a war raging which would have made the neighbours cringe (they have since politely 'pretended' not to have heard them as I have sheepishly apologised) and not even the UN could draw up a treaty.   I am surprised by the utter nastiness and almost blood thristy violence that goes on at times between siblings, though I am fightened to ask my brothers for support to this statement ......just incase their memory is *ahem* somewhat different from mine.....it was a hard day from start to finish.  I then had a difficult Nightduty to contend with at the nursing home with a nurse who just between you me and the fence post is OFF THE PLANET.  I came home expecting the ghoulish screams of sibling hatred to pierce my ears as I walked through the front door, only to find them happily playing 'checks' (chequers) together....so it seems the treaty has been temporarily reached.

So...off to a better start, I fell into a deep sleep lulled by the sounds of household harmony, to wake and find it hadn't been a dream afterall...my kids were actually lovely today......

To celebrate, we all pulled on our sneakers to bask in the winter sunshine and go for a walk together...

kick kick swooosh....our kids flying past on their scooters with huge smiles on thier faces said it all, this should be done more often.  The scooters have been a great form of free entertainment for the King and I aswell, as they are so damned FUNNY when they try to do tricks and concentrate to go fast.....

and then I found a thistle fairy on the way home, stopped to pick it and make a wish....

Thanks Mother Universe ;)

Oh the Monstrosity.......

SHE'S FINALLY OURS!!!  After what felt like an eternity, we have finally settled on our house affecftionately known as 'Monstrosity', a name we called it after driving past, then as fate would have it SOMETHING about this huge monstosity of white cladding made us turn back....it was in a great location, has a large yard for the kids (and mum lol) and when we went inside the first time, it was love at first sight.   Not sure what took our breath away, actually, as it has such a hideous mish mash of styles all menacingly covering up the 1930's grace and beauty of the original house, but somewhere deep inside our hearts we could tell that under all this 1970's lino (and the 1950's lino stuck under that....) here was a place to build family's future.  And our crazy offer was accepted.....and the rest as they say, is history.

To the question frequently asked by my new workmates and neighbours as to why we moved HERE (they are incredulously unaware of the awesome proximity) we have taken to responding, 'we threw a dart at a map and here we are', but in this case the truth hasn't strayed far from the yarn.  

Now we are looking forward to doing her justice and renovating to reveal her true beauty, and filling her with vintage spoils.

Just the small issue of that OTHER house to deal with.  Humph, well the universe moves in mysterious ways. 

Here she is IF you're game ;)

http://www.kempseyrealestate.com.au/properties.php?id=3763152

Sunday sweet Sunday

Hi all, ssshhhhhhh.......*looks around* dont say anything, I was just getting stuff ready to make a lamb braise ( with mash of course) and DH took over....I picked the herbs, offered advice about how much of this and that but he has cooked dinner. Smells awesome, and I bet it tastes nicer having it made for me...mmmmmmmmmmm




but its our secret isnt it???



Hope everyone had an awesome Sunday. We had a quiet one, walked to the shops (much further than I thought....oops and quite hilly, but good for the butt...) got the paper and sat in a park enjoying the sunshine.
 
Tried to make the honeycomb as posted. But failed. As quickly as I hollered at my son to 'get that ball out of here' and then to reprimand DD9 about yelling at her brother (hmmmm yes I do see the similarity there) I caught it and it tasted bleeping AWFUL. Lucky though as today was the start of healthy lifestyle plan. Again. LOL, ohwell.

The Great Honeycomb debate.......

After a somewhat hilarious debate over the virtues of the Crunchie Bar v's the Violet Crumble......I have decided to make some honeycomb today.....using the recipe in mum's family recipe book ( I love this old recipe book, it is stained from years of sitting saucepan side in the throes of many a beloved creation)

The recipe is simple and aside from the risk of 3rd degree burns when it bubbles up with the bicarb is also fun to make.
4 tablespoons golden syrup

1 tablespoon water
1 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Bring golden syrup, sugar and water to boil, should be almost at toffee stage, then take off heat, add bicarb and stir it in and watch it foam up like a volcano......I secretly love this part.....mwa ha ha ha must be the inner child in me.....
Pour it into a greased tray ( I use baking paper also) let set then break into chunks (this part is also fun lol)

Yummmmmooooo

Might keep the troops quiet for a while, here's hoping ;)

Shiny Happy People

oooh, hello everyone....very quiet in here tonight, thought I would pop in to share the events of our day.....we had such a lovely START to the day. I woke up to the kids fighting (norm..sheesh) and then through my unpeeled eyelids I realised I had glimpsed SUNLIGHT, yes you heard right...after the deluge of the last week we decided to take the kids for a walk to some local markets...not much on there, oh well off to local discount store to stock up on colouring books and the like for the next rainy day......took the kids to the Lighthouse in South West Rocks to look for whales (where we all deluded ourselves we saw 'something') and then on the drive out of the national park heard the 'flap flap flap'...no not a man eating hawk circling, but our rear tyre had blown on our near 4wd adventure.......trying to find the 'perfect' camping spot and admittedly sniggering at the collapsed soggy tents the previous nights tenants had evacuated.........so fairy's punishment I suppose that the wheelnuts would NOT budge......it took 3 men, some weird looking pipes ( not the nimbin kind) to lever and 1/2 a can of wd40.......nothing. The lovely people who had stopped us had their first kid free day in over a year, they have 5 kids....I felt so bad. Anyway they hooked us up with a friend with a tow truck to get us back to Dad's and the local mechanic around the corner. Some fussing with his you beaut tools and 1/2 an hour later, we have our tyre replaced. No-one would accept payment (except the towie of course lol, but he did it on 'mates rates') The young couple only accepted the token $20 we gave them after we insisted as they had driven back and forwards to their own house to get tools etc and they didnt have to even stop. The Mechanic.....he refused. Amazing.

So a long life reaffirming day. I love days like these when you are reminded about the kindness of people in this world.

I hope they have an awesome night ;)

....and to cap it off, a 'quickie' dinner at Mum's so no dishes...... and kids asleep, snuggled into their beds and it's only 7pm.








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