Nooo, I haven't forgotten I'm taking up valuable blog space!

I have had next-to-no-time for myself in the last few months. Seriously. I mean, I do sit of a night time and stitch my latest knitting project, and I have been attending a local knitting group and learning new things, so it's not like I'm under some new communist regime that does not allow me any kind of personal time, but the chances to just sit, blog about the world around me, and amaze my self with all the beautiful blogs out there has been very, very limited. It started to eat away at me a little, because I am also someone who likes having a relatively normal-looking home, and not one that the State Emergency Service might mistake for being hit by a hurricane. But a few things have had to go, and some of the housework remaining undone for a lot of the time has been one of those things.

Before I completely lost my noodle and threw myself in the nearest lake, I reached out for help and well, by god's grace, it was there. The people that helped me don't really know what they have done for the most part, but I'm still here, my kids are still happy, healthy and thriving, and for the most part the only thing missing was the sense of community I used to have the belief in.

I find it a bit of a shame that there isn't a sense of 'community' any more in the society I live in. I'm in a suburb that looks, for all intents and purposes, like we'd all know each other and maybe even take each other's kids to school. But no. I'm surrounded by Modern Mums. The gym-attending, fake-tanning, shops-for-entertainment women who are quite literally never home. I should clarify that these mums are also lovely people, with the same genuinely gorgeous intentions that the generations before them had for their children too, but I've just begun to notice that it seems like my generation, that is the X's and a few of the early Y's, have lost their love of the art of homemaking. I think that most of us aim for the catalogue look in our homes as well as in our actual lives, and it's a true shame.

But anyway, I digress...! I have actually been blessed with a whole hour by myself, because the fairies, angels or what ever other dieties there are that are in charge of my world continuing to spin must have met and had a sit down, ensuring that the roast is already in the oven, the partner is home and taking the son out while the daughter is having a very well rested sleep. So I thought I would pop in on here, let who ever is out there in cyber world looking over my fence know that I am still alive and to say 'hi'. Hope you're all doing well too - don't be shy in telling me so.

So, if anyone out there IS still reading this blithering mad babble of a woman finally alone, please feel free to tell me what it's like in your community? Maybe I'll move there, if it's friendly enough!

My yard...

needs help!

Oh-Ah Friday....blow out!

Well I'm hoping on the one hand I have a secret following of thousands that showed up here on friday dyyyying to see our new lounge room....but in reality I know that the only people I disappointed was myself and the fella!

We finally got everything back in to the room last night, as it's all painted and we hired a carpet cleaner, and the room looks freakin' great (except a couple of the cracks are already resurfacing, the fella wishes he'd taken more time and sanded and reapplied plaster more delicately) in my opinion! I was going to buy some curtains, but after looking at the prices of ready-mades, I'm going to put those rather expensive sewing lessons to good use and make our own. I like that it's nearly change of season again, so shops will be cutting the prices of last year's fabric to create that fear amongst home makers that they must update with the brand new stuff, so hopefully I will be able to grab some fabric that is "soooo last year" for really cheap. But then again, I know me, and I know that until it is really cheap, I won't buy anything!

Ok, so there are no piccies yet, but I proooomise I am thinking about it!

Hope you've had a great weekend...

Just a quick update from the trenches...

Hi all, and sorry for the absence! I'm sure you all missed me, I really am....

So I've been a while, doin' this mummy gig and learning how to do a school run, being the class tea towel and napkin washer for the week, getting my boy up and ready for his big days 5 times a week. It's not been exhausting or anything, and to be quite honest I think it's done him the world of good! He's still three, don't get me wrong - there are times when I'm just glad they have already banned selling kids on the ebay, because some days he'd be at a 'buy now' price that would compete with a loaf of bread.

But anyway...back to my big hopes this week (did you know that was what I was gunna rabbit on about?). I've gone and got me a sustainability assessment booked for this week, a solar panels quote is already underway and I'm thinking about changing our toxic, disgusting, rank carpet to solid wood flooring if the assessment covers it. But here's the catch - the loans stop on March 22. So I reeeeaaally need to get my A into G. Like Ricky-Mutha-frikkin-ticky. Yesterday would have been good.

So that is the first cab off the rank. We're also going to pull our fingers out this week (starting today) and paint the lounge room. We have a week til we have guests arrive, so working to a deadline, and with that lovely invention called school for Ethan, we should be able to knock it on the head within a week. We're not silly, and we're doing all the prep-work first, so I don't envisage any actual paint on the walls until at least wednesday, cos there is a lot of prep work unfortunately. The previous owners of this house, who built it, were not very forthcoming with the prep work nor with making sure things were done properly. We're talking stereo system wires hanging from corners, chipped and cracked paint, unsealed windows kinda work. So my enjo and my partner will be working over time this week! Oh, and just for the product placement, if you have a need to clean walls, I recommend the kitchen or bbq gloves and the green miracle. Does a more thorough job, quicker and easier than sugar soap or any kind of rank sticky chemical ever could. But I digress...

In a week, we shall be rewarded with beautiful, crack and chip free, nicely understated colour walls. I shall do the before and after shots, just for brag-book sakes. When I was little (ok, when I was about 10!), my mum and her neighbours used to have 'oooh ahhh fridays', and gees it was cool fun! What ever stuff you'd done to your house (and it was the 80's recession, so it was never much, maybe just a shelf, or even sometimes new tea towels), you got full bragging rights and an audience on ooh ahh fridays. I used to love it. Mum would make burgers (homemade, best ever burgers I tell ya!), she worked in a brewery so she'd buy a bottle of what ever and invite the neighbours. Was one of the fundamentally best parts of growing up where we lived, even though it only went for a couple years. But anyway, I hope to have our very own 'ooh ahh friday' this week....

Stay tuned!

I've been busy with both hands....

I'm sorry I am not going to be doing a long post. But there is good reason...I made this blanket, for my friend who's having a baby soon. It has created a knitting demon in the house, all because of Ravelry. What an amazing site! I can highly recommend that you go there, your friends go there, and anyone who loves to knit or crochet goes there. I've been lost there for days...and don't want to be found!




Have an amazing week everyone. I've been doing better than only a few weeks ago, and can't help but think that aside from all the assistance I've been getting for Ethan, in the form of remedies, that this new creative outlet has also helped.

Oh, and for anyone who's into hearing about the changes that others make in their conscious living, I have decided that we are only eating chicken products that have come from humane sources. Free range and roaming all the way!!! I made the change standing at the meat section of the supermarket the other day. Now to find a source that sells it in bulk, so the price is more competitive, and my mission will be easier on the pocket!

Hi, I'm Fairy from the GunnaDo Tribe...

Hi and nice to see ya!

I can't even think of the last time I actually posted, but here is another pocket of time I've found, with too many things running through my head that I'm excited about. I'm going to try to keep this post from being really long, but no promises (although no doubt the kiddies are on the side of keeping it short and will interupt me mid sentence of course!).

First, I can't wait to say that over the last couple of months I've been keeping a mental check on how much rubbish we produce here. It's quite disgusting. No, actually, it's REALLY disgusting. So I did change from disposable to cloth nappies when Alice got heavy enough for them, yeah. Cut down all those nappies that were going in the bin by about 95% that did! Ethan still has a night nappy, but unfortunately he won't wear a cloth one as he says they're uncomfortable. But generally, instead of 6 or so disposables in our bin a day, we're just putting in one. I'm happy with that. Unless we're going away for a really long stretch of time (like 8 nappies worth), then Alice will be wearing cloth all day and night. So maybe one day out of fourteen we're using disposables. Not ideal, but I'll get there.

But the green waste, that I was definitely NOT happy about. So I researched, I asked questions, I pondered, and then I went to gumtree and found a secondhand Bokashi Bucket! I am soooo happy that now I have really cut down our outgoing-to-the-landfill rubbish. No kidding, I'd love a compost tumbler, but the cash is in short supply and they just don't come up secondhand that often. I honestly cannot believe how much that little addition to my kitchen has cut down my trips to the big bin. I put a plastic shopping bag (yeah, I know, but hey, I'm learning!) in the kitchen bin three days ago, and finally took it to the bin this morning, and even then it was only a quarter full. Between my vigilant recycling efforts (Ethan starts kindy tomorrow so I've been keeping my yoghurt containers, etc in a stockpile for the teacher), my bokashi and the nappies, I've cut our landfill waste down from a bag a day to a quarter of a bag in three days. Unbelievable.

Ok, so my next gabble is that I've been knitting, and have nearly finished a baby blanket. My first knitted gift, and I'm proud to say it's not too bad. I've got at least two babies to 'buy' for this year, and I'm not actually going to 'buy' anything if I can help it, but rather do some making and gifting. Babies are adorable, cute, cuddly, and amazing. They also grow far too quickly to warrant buying them anything brand new that will last only a few weeks! Think of the environmental difference we could all make if we re-purposed all of our clothing for just the first three months. It would have to be significant, yeah?

I have also fallen in love, all over again, with hemphemphooray and Teresa's fantastic face cream. I bought the day cream some time ago (two, three months?) and it's still half full. I use it every morning and night, and it is just the best. So is the lip salve that I got. Look, I don't get any financial gain in telling you about hemphemphooray, but gees, just go and have a look if you're looking for an alternative to beauty products that contain hidden nasties. I've known Teresa for about a decade, and the woman knows what she's doing!

Ok, like I said, I'd get interupted. But I haven't, amazingly. So to leave you with a pic of our happy girl, I hope you have a great week.

I think I have ten minutes....

So I thought I would pop in and say hello. We've had a more successful start to 2010 than we did end to 2009, which is just lovely. Ethan went to the homeopath/naturopath and we found some remedies that seem to have worked a treat, as well as a couple of trips to the chiropractor (please, if you had a ceasar, consider it! It has worked wonders on both him and Alice!). He's just a different kid.

Anyway, I thought I had ten minutes...turns out I had two!

I'm going on a diet...

An internet diet. I have come to realise, well, not really...I've finally admitted to myself, that for someone with two gorgeous children, I spend far too much time on the internet. It's not productive time, either, it's stoopid, window shopping, browsing other peoples' lives' time. I need to stop envying others, and start enjoying myself.

I'll still be posting, probably more often than I have been lately actually, but I'm not sure about the way things will happen. When I was given all the fancy stuff I inherited, I made a vow to myself that I would use it, and currently the computer is in the way. Right now, in fact, if it weren't connected I would be sewing or knitting on the machines while both of the kids are asleep. But I'm not. I'm being a lazy so-an-so and reading blog after beautiful blog wishing some of the other crafty bloggers would come and decorate my house. But they aren't, so I need to do something about that!

So I wish you all a merry christmas, may it be a relaxing one with loads of love and not much plastic (credit or present-wise!). Drop me a line and let me know how much you loved your time off, your new socks, or the scarf that nanna made you in june that she's just given you now (and yeah, I am actually giving a friend of mine a scarf - and it's about 40degrees celcius here today!). I will love hearing all about your xmas cheer!

The difference

I'm not coping very well with this new life of mine. I'm up at 4.30am about 5mornings out of 7 a week, and don't get any rest again until sometimes 11pm. My children seem to be in cahoots, making sure that at least one of them is wide awake all the time. And I'm trying to be tough.

Thing is, I'm not tough. I'm turning to water about once a day, because I get so sick of trying to negotiate with a near 3 year old about things all the time. It's not his fault, it's mine. I don't know, I just have my fingers crossed that this will pass. I'm too knackered to do much with him, the house is a complete poo-storm and I'm waiting until tuesday when my partner gets home from working away for his two week stint...

Anyway, better go and pull my poo in a pile...

It's oh, so Quiet...

Good morning....

It's sleepy here at the moment. Well, it's also 5am here at the moment, so that explains why. I woke at 3.30am with Alice, as she needed a feed and a change, and by 4am Ethan was up as well. I'm not sure what woke him exactly, whether it was Alice and I or whether he just wriggled out of bed too much, but he's in my spot now.

I'm feeling a bit reflective lately. There are quite a few things that I've been thinking about...

I've been using a different tactic on Ethan for his behaviour, and I think it's working ok in my opinion. I get worried that other people see Ethan as nothing but a hassle, because of his age and his over-stimulated personality that just yearns to socialise with others. My sister is a good example of that. She used to think the sun shone clear out of his bottom, but now she hardly looks at him when she (rarely) visits us. It breaks my heart, because he still thinks the sun shines out of her bottom, he just doesn't realise that it's not reciprocated anymore. I also have quite a few friends with kids the same age, and it always feels like he is getting the blame for any hiccups that occur during play time. In my opinion, kids are kids. They fight and are best friends fifty times in sixty minutes, and as a teacher was once heard saying they are all "unique and special snowflakes...just like every one else". I think all kids at age two, up until about age 5 or 6, are absolutely unbearable half the time. But when I see my friends, they seem to err on the side of their own children all the time, and don't seem to think that there is a relationship between the kids at all, a to-ing and fro-ing of behaviour and reactions. I don't know, perhaps I'm being too sensitive lately? Having a baby can do that, in conjunction with a heavy dose of cabin fever!

I inherited the most amazing things a couple of weeks ago. My partners Nan passed away a few months ago, and left instructions that I was to be given as much of her fancy work stuff as I wanted. So I am now the proud owner of not only an overlocker, but also an Embroidery sewing maching, and two knitting machines. Basically Pop bought down the entire craft room and put it in my house. So we have been moving things around. A lot. My office is now going to be the new craft/fancy work room, and the computer is being moved to the rear of the house, near the back door. It made us cry, getting it all in the house, as I felt so lucky and loved by Nan to have been gifted so much. It really has made me think about her life a lot too, as she also mothered her five children while Pop went away to work. They were a real pioneering couple, and Nan knew that sometimes she wouldn't see or hear from Pop for months - their youngest daughter was nearly 6 months old before Pop even met her. I think, when I reflect on how hard Nan worked around the home, of how lucky I am now. My partner calls home every night he's away. If there is an emergency, or a death, or anything, he can be flown home within 24 hours easily. And without the distractions of malls, computers, mobile phones and the like, Nan did a lot of learning of her own, running those machines and making her childrens clothes and toys. She was such an inspiration.

Alice is settling in really well still. I'm just about ready to make up her cot and get her sleeping in there during the day, but she's still in the bassinette in our room during the night. She has been sleeping in her room in the bassinette in the daytime, as it's much darker than our room, and that's been going ok. We also were really lucky to be loaned a swinging cradle (battery operated thingamugig) and that has also given us much sanity when she's been hard to settle. A little colic, but nothing that doesn't sort itself out within about an hour, and she's still sleeping a lot. I'm guessing that all of that will change significantly over the next few weeks.

Anyway, that's the big report from here for now. I don't know if there'll be many posts over the next few weeks, as I'm considering moving the computer to somewhere that there's no net jack just yet, but I'll either keep you posted, or you'll notice the silence!

Quietness....

well, it's only week 3 and she's still sleeping alot. That said, I did just finish about 3 solid hours of holding her and making sure that her sore tummy/teeth isn't giving her so much grief that she thinks she's alone...

Now much else to write, very sleepy here and Ethan and daddy are at the Wiggles concert. I can't wait to hear all about it when he gets back!

Happy Families...

We've been harbouring a storm here lately. My son Ethan, as you know, is well and truly in to his second year. I am starting to believe they shouldn't give the ages of children numbers, but that they should label the year instead, to remind you of what you're in for. I'd label this year the 'Year of Defiance and Self-Determination'. It's so strange that the behaviour that Ethan is presenting is so challenging, yet, to be honest, if he were a teen I'd be ecstatic at his level of independence!

Ethan is an adorable, wonderful little boy. He is incredibly confident, self-assured and aware of his surroundings, he's gentle with his sister, and social with his friends. He is also a tyrannical child, who is bossy, demanding, emotional and high maintainance. We often find we don't know which way the winds blowing with him, and it's just a constant battle of wills some days!

That's why I haven't blogged much these past couple of weeks. In the sleepy house of the newborn, we've also been tackling a 2 yr old that wakes up at 5am, has no gears in his energy levels, just a go and a stop button, and who is dealing with the new arrival of a little sister who I'm sure (to him), seems like she takes up all of mum and dad's time. So we're on the battlefront, trying to both set boundaries and also to nurture and love him as he is, and that's why I'm a bit absent. Hope you can forgive me, this might endure a while longer...!

Well, we've got past the first week here in whiney fairy land and Alice is fitting in well. She's a seemingly contented baby, has taught me that she does NOT like mustard in her breastmilk (hey, I never knew!), and aside from that we've just had to start re-assuring her that the difference between day and night is that mum really likes to sleep at night! I think it's true what they say about mum's with more than one baby, because I am soooo much more relaxed this time than I was with Ethan.

We've been doing super-well with the stay at home challenge (as I now am calling it!). I am determined to get as close to pay day as possible without entering a supermarket or store (but the store part fell apart yesterday, as we had a birthday party and I forgot to pre-buy a present unfortunately). We've run out of fresh milk, but I just made up a load of powdered for myself and the uht is still going strong for the gentlemen of the house. We're having a couple friends around today, and I've even managed to not have to go out for them to be catered for too. I was having a mild panic attack this morning, because I 'always do potato salad' for our bbq's and thought I'd best run off to the market for the ingredients. Then I floated the option to my partner that we have coleslaw and pasta salad instead. "Yeah, sounds good" came the reply - well, good compared to going to the market I think!!!

So we've been becoming the masters of 'making do' this week. We have not done much other than have a couple of visitors, leaving the house only when necessary (trying to make our fuel last for two weeks instead of one is a huuuuge challenge for us, but luckily there's a lot of home-based entertainment: more on that in a moment) and have pretty much left the bank balance alone. Last pay I got a bit excited and paid too much off our debt, leaving us with very little in our actual spending account. Silly move! I usually wait to put the excess on until the end of the pay cycle, but for some reason (can I blame enthusiasm and pregnancy brain?) I sent our excess off to the bank at the beginning of the pay cycle, and that's why we're really watching our money. I don't think we'd be behaving any differently than we would have anyway, but it's really bought home how much difference there is between what we think we need when we have got spare money and what we actually really need when we don't.

Ethan is still doing really well, and despite our 'house-boundedness' we've kept our little adventurer happy and healthy. Yesterday we made delish Zucchini and Orange Cake from Womens Weekly's "Creative Cooking on a Budget" (also known as my Favourite Cookbook of All Time), and that will see us entertain our morning visitors, with maybe even a bit for afternoon tea after our bbq lunch. I like to think that in his future Ethan will make a great cook, because he's always encouraged to help me in the kitchen - so far he's learned many things that I won't go in to, but suffice to say he'll sit on the floor with me and find recipes in our cookbooks and natter away about 'what we gunna make' quite a lot. I love it. We've also put together some fantastic playdough from my friend Kristi's recipe. She makes a cooked playdough, and it can't be beat!

Kristi's Playdough....
Add 1 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons oil and some food colouring (but only a few drops!). Throw it all in the saucepan, over a low heat and stir, stir, stir, until the mix resembles playdough. Turn it out on to a hard surface once it's cooled a little and then give it a knead. Leave until completely cool and then let the kiddies have loads of fun!

So that's the relatively relaxing pace to our week this week. We'll have things to do this week, more visitors and some adventures to plan (zoo visit this week, as Ethan has decided he "needs to show baby sissa the efalents" so we've arranged a free pass and I'll pack the lunch). Aside from that, we're hoping to make it another 5 days at least until the next big grocery shop....Fingers crossed for me!!!

It's just another day here at the ranch...

I don't know how to start this post today, except to say that everyone is asking me how my son is dealing with his new little sister. The short answer is that he loves her dearly. The long way around that is that it seems that he has developed a real issue with his mum and dad. He has always been head-strong, but the streak that has come out of him lately around my partner and I has been quite astonishing, to be honest. On Tuesday night I sat down and had a revelation...

I realised I had become The Screaming Mother. My son, who's a lovely, well-developed, conversive, co-ordinated like a mountain goat, gorgeous all round kid, has a real issue with listening. Well, der, I hear the voices in my head saying...He's nearly three, that is relatively 'normal'...

But the frustrations that were mounting about simply Never Feeling Listened To were just getting too much, and they peaked on Tuesday night when I realised that I had been arguing with Ethan since about 7am, on and off, all day. Put your shoes on, no. Eat some breakfast, no. Don't jump on the bed, yes. Wash your hands before you eat, no. It was just never-ending, and it isn't the first day of it. It was however, the second day of this kind of defiance for a mum who's trying to deal with the new addition, breastfeeding, re-couping from a c-section, scheduling in midwife and child health nurse visits, getting dinner ready, getting children bathed and fed...the list goes on. In fact, writing the list is making me tired, let alone doing the daily in and out of it all alongside the constant defiant argument of a near-three yr old boy who's just trying to create, establish and enjoy his first senses of independence.

So I asked my partner how he felt, because he has been taking the same kind of dictatorship that I had. He also, was exhausted by it. And very upset with himself that even though we love Ethan with all our hearts, we were quite honestly ready to smack him in to line. Now, I'm not going to debate smacking with anyone - in fact the only wise thing my mother in law ever told me was to never talk about parenting or politics with people you don't know - but I will say that smacking doesn't work for Ethan. He sees it as a red light to do the same to others, and to be honest I really don't like the look of my own childs face when he is afraid of me.

On Wednesday we took Ethan to the library and alongside his books we got ourselves a couple of parenting books that have seemed to help - and that has been where the last two days have kind of changed our stress levels. We stopped using the word "dont" with him and have replaced it with as many positive alternatives as possible. Instead of "don't jump on the bed" we say "beds are for sleeping on" for example. And it's done wonders. We got through the whole day yesterday, for the first time in a long time (as he's been very defiant and independent since way before Alice was born) without having to drag him inside screaming, having him hit us, or him having a complete meltdown because he's not getting his way. In fact, at about 5pm last night, just as Ethan was getting a bit demanding (5pm is "Arsenic Hour" around here - the worst time of the day, because it's so busy) my partner said that he was ready to crack. He felt better that he hadn't 'lost' the day to screaming, but exhausted through the changing of how he communicated. So I reminded him that we only had about 2hours left until we had really, literally 'won' the day and survived without screaming. We trundled on, and it's been fantastic today too.

I don't know why I've posted this, but I guess it's because I didn't want to give the impression on this blog that I know all and have a perfect family life. Far from it. We struggle and muddle through, just like everyone else. And when we found our little victory yesterday, I wanted to share it.

Well, she has arrived....

Alice

Alice was born on Wednesday 4th November at 1pm, under c-section. We have found that so far, she's loving the world very muchly! Ethan and Daddy became besotted custodians immediately, and Alice cannot cry, squeek or pop off without the assistance of the narration of Big Brother Ethan giving us a fantastic run-down of all movement and noise. Alice, in return, coo's and calms immediately upon the presence and touch of her Big Brother, and they seem to have been in cahoots for quite sometime, as they are coordinating their movements and night-wake times very closely thus far!

It's so good to have her home. To know now that Ethan thinks that she is just the bestest little sister he could have asked for. To have a loving partner that is looking after every single detail that his non-domestic brain can remember (hey, I even had hot porridge for breakfast this morning...I don't even make hot porridge!). To be home a day early, lucky enough to live not too far from the hospital that we have a visiting midwifery service that are coming to check her all out. It's all so incredibly lucky for us to be in the right here, right now, that it is a little hard to believe.

Ethan meets Alice

We had a pretty predictable first afternoon home, and Ethan was keen as mustard to take his little sister out in to the world to meet everyone he knows and see everything he's discovered, but luckily we managed to negotiate a play on the floor with the cars and blocks, and a very handy assistant helped Daddy give her her first bath at home in the kitchen sink. Ethan's job was to rub some lotion on her feet, from where the hospital bands had scratched marks on her, and that was a pretty magic job apparently. He then sat very nicely last night and we made a farm all around her to show her the animals and have a big play. Sure, there were moments where he'd chuck a little tantrum because Mum or Dad wasn't doing things properly, but let's face it, Mum and Dad barely know what they're doing most days of the week anyway! So aside from that, Alice is settling in well, and Ethan is the happiest Big Brother he thought he could be. It's been a lovely start to our new additions life amongst the family.