Ian Fernando........ Revolution!!!

Well, as I mentioned Previously I have been learning all about Wordpress, web hosting and how to do self installs and maintenance of wordpress itself.... It has been one exciting journey and all to serve a purpose:

To start an internet "project" of sorts with a friend. It has the potential to turn into an income for us, but first and foremost will be just for fun, so we'll see how it goes and grows.

What I am REALLY excited about is that, in developing our idea, I have been on the hunt for the perfect Wordpress theme which I found!!! Revolution by Brian Gardner

Then just to add to my excitement, as I was about to purchase the theme (its a premium theme, not just a freebie) I came across this great site http://www.ianfernando.com and he is actually GIVING away 2 copies, one of Revolution News Theme and the other of Revolution Theme in a contest!!!! Who knows if I will win, but it would be AMAZING if it happened :D

If you'd like to have a chance to win, all you need to do is go to Ian Fernando's Blog and follow the instructions in his post. There's also lots of other great info on the blog too, so stop for a while and take a look around :)

Good Luck Everyone :D

I'm Going to be an AUNTY :)

OMG!!! I am so so very excited. One of my BEST friends is pregnant. NOBODY else knows except for me, her and her partner. He didn't want to tell anybody but she managed to convince him that she really did need one friend to talk to about it, and who better qualified than me LOL, having been through it 3 times, I should be able to give her most answers she needs.

I am so very very very happy for them. She seperated a couple of years ago from her husband, we all went to school together, so it was hard and in some ways split our group of friends heading in other directions, but as fate would have it she met a lovely guy and they are really really happy together.

To be honest I was getting a little eager to have another bub of my own, which I never expected would happen....... Now I feel no desire to go down that path as I can enjoy her journey. I just really wish she lived closer, but thank god for email and digital cameras for belly photo updates :D

Busy Busy Learning :D

I am looking really forward to what the next few months might hold. So what's happening?

WELL, I have taught myself SO SO much over the last few weeks and after alot of hard work and focus I feel I have finally started to progress in a direction I am happy with :D

So what have I taught myself to do???? Well I got myself some web hosting, a domain name for a site I have wanted to have a dabble in for a while, AND I taught myself how to upload and install wordpress. Now I have my eyes on a few themes that I think will suit my goal, and even BETTER, I might be undertaking a little side project with a friend which is really really exciting.

Its amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind to it. As a mother I do find it sort of frustrating that I have very little time to just sit down and put my head fully into something, but while its taken me some time to achieve I am so proud of what I have accomplished.

Fingers crossed I can get the sites up and running and in 12 months I can look back and totally amaze myself with how far my skills in wordpress have evolved :)

Wordless Wednesday...

I absolutely adore this photo of my 3 littlies that I snapped at the beach last weekend..... It's going to be a hot summer here this year but I am really looking forward to afternoon visits to the rock pools.... I really miss that over winter, and so do the kids :) Happy Wordless Wednesday(hmm I always manage to have to write something so guess its not too wordless LOL)

Help me Realise a dream!!! Please vote :)

Quite a while ago I began reading Carrie Lauth's Blog and I was SO very excited not so long ago to see that she was actually GIVING away, (yes you read correctly) an old site of her's that she no longer has time to develop......

In order to enter the contest people were asked to leave a comment on the blog as to why they would like the site.... I was the second person to post and decided to Write a little poem: Please find my poem below and if you have a tiny spare moment could you please Click here and comment on Carrie's blog to vote for Busy Me!! (aka Loreena) Lol

I love crafting and while I don't have the time to do alot of it, it's one of those things in life that give me "me time" and enjoyment, knowing I have created something beautiful with my own hands. Sometimes I am even lucky enough to sell my creations to friends..... I have such a huge vision for the site, I would really love the opportunity to prove myself :)

(HUGE thanks for your time if you have read this far.... :D :D)

So here is my entry poem I posted on Carrie's Blog :)

BUSY ME!!! said...

There’s so much more that I can be,
That’s something I am beginning to see.
I am a dedicated wife, and mother,
Try to be respectful to others.

But lately I have had a need
To find something that is missing it seems,
It’s a business venture I’m working at growing,
But how I do need help to get it going.

Sitting in my lounge is a serger and sewer,
Some beads, Felt, yarn, and acrylic paints among others.
My dream would be to have a business that combines
All of these things and business success also in my life

I’m first to admit as a mother of 3
Time is something that more of I need.
You see, other than my family, my passions are
Craft and the internet by far.

I’ve always wondered how,
to combine both for business and fun.
A site like this would fulfill my dreams,
I am confident I’m the one.

I would pledge from the day I was owner,
To raise the site as if it were my own child,
To dedicate, time, finances and effort,
To absolutely enjoy and be dedicated, body, soul and mind.

I’m not an absolute internet wiz,
But I have a strong, keen mind and learn rather quick.
I have a business background, but now am a full time mum
And I have such a strong feeling, my life’s journey has just begun.

Not much more that I can tell you,
Except thankyou for your time, If you vote for me, I wouldn’t disappoint you.

Tackle It Tuesday :)

Ok, so today's Tackle It Tuesday revolves around my "virtual life". I am working on a few "projects" at the moment and there's much work to be done. Therefore, today I am tackling this blog, as well as developing a couple of other sites I have ideas for, and doing some "paid" work for the new "virtual assistant" position I have recently started.

Today is really the beginning for a bunch of goals I have that really need to be completed by the end of the week...

Oh and don't think for one minute I am missing out on all the joy's and the wonder's of housework LOL... yesterday on hubby's day off we spent the day together rearranging our wardrobe AND the kids wardrobes, the linen cupboard, and re-arranged our bedroom.. PHEW, I am tired again just thinking about it :D

Happy Tackle It Tuesday everyone :D

First things first :)

Ok, ok, I know I have been SSSSOOOOO behind with posting, but I am sure you are all with me when I say that sometimes "real life" just demands so much attention that your "online" life gets pushed to the side a little??

Well,,,, IIIIIIIIIIII'''MMMMMMMMMM BBBBAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKK, stronger and better than ever, here to post about my life as boring or interesting as that may be LOL!!! :)

So to finish off myTeenage Saga which began here... and then followed with some "tough love" .... here's how it all ended!!!

Picture this: I am standing at the kitchen sink washing the dishes, the 2 girls (having just gotten out of bed at 1pm) are sitting on my sofa planning a road trip and discussing how they had enough money for petrol for the car, food, alcohol, cigarettes, to get a new tattoo!!!!! They oh so kindly told me that they would be going away while my mother came to stay for the weekend (something that is another story all of its own!!) and they would wander back in this direction in a few days (oh so nice of them I know!)

While their little discussion was taking place, the older of the girls says "I still don't know if we will have enough money" and the younger one says "yeah we do, we just figured it out, and we will be staying here when we get back so it'll be cool!!"

At this point I am standing there FUMING!!! I certainly wasn't aware of the fact that staying here equaled free food and board, so obviously I had missed something!!!! So on they continue with their little discussion about how much money that had been paid today and how much fun it was going to be (keep in mind that they had been staying a week eating every meal here and had only contributed one carton of milk to the household!!) when they stopped chatting to ask "what do you think??????"

Oh my!! What a temptation, so I repeat to them "what do I think???" "yes" they reply....... "Do you REALLY want to know?" was my next question to them!!! Oh so stupidly they replied "yes"

I was actually SHAKING at this point!!!! For ease of reading I will list in point form what my advice and opinion was.... ;)


*** "I think you were offered a place to stay while you looked for a job and somewhere to rent, now as far as I can see you haven't really made much of an effort to do either"


*** "You have been invited into somebody's home, moved into a little boy's room, which is totally fine, but you show no respect by attempting to help out, contribute to the household or motivate yourselves to get employment or accommodation as soon as possible"


*** Somewhere the youngest of the girls replies "oh but we HAVE looked for jobs" now this doesn't sit well with me and I calmly reply "sleeping in until lunchtime, heading to the beach, having another nap, then leaving the house mid afternoon to "job hunt" after which you come home touch up your makeup and go and hang out with boys is not job hunting in my book"


*** "You are MORE than welcome to stay here, as a matter of fact, I don't mind feeding you at all IF and I repeat IF you were showing responsibility!!! You can't just decide to move to another town and expect other people to pay your way, at some point you must take responsibility"


*** "As I said, you are totally welcome to stay here, but in return I would like to see you up at a decent time in the morning and making some effort towards getting employment and accommodation... if that takes weeks then so be it, as long as you are making effort I don't mind!!"


So basically that's what I said.... they went fairly quiet after I said it, hopped in the shower and went straight into town to the job agencies. One of them even lined up an interview (which of course she never did end up attending).... They came home a day later and announced that they would be going on a holiday and wouldn't be staying with us, that Mr 4 could have his room back and they would figure something out!!

You have NO IDEA how bad I felt...... I really needed to say it though, and while I was firm with them I didn't raise my voice or yell, I just told them how I saw it, and i know in a way I did them a favour, because at some point we all have to learn that to make it in life requires effort.... but i couldn't help but have a few tears to my hubby who assured me that if I hadn't said anything we would have had boarders here for the next 6 months :D

I think he has definately learnt his lesson, I dare say he will not be inviting people to stay with us in that situation any time soon....

I must say... I totally absolutely feel like an "old fart" saying stuff like that... I remember how fun and carefree it felt to be a teenager, but there's only so much I can allow them to take advantage of a situation when its affecting my kids and my family...... looks like I am officially a "grown up" PMSL!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday...

My gorgeous girl admiring the scenery when we were out on a walk a couple of months ago.....

Behaviour that calls for Tough Love!!!

Hi Myla, this post is dedicated to you :)

Ok, so previously I quickly posted about our Teenage Visitors in an attempt to explain why my poor blog has suffered and had absolutely no attention.....

Just to summarise, we offered hubby's cousin (aged 16) and her friend (almost 18) a place to stay while they found themselves a job and a place to live. WEEEEELLLLLLL we didn't realise that their idea of finding accomodation and employment involved:

a) Sleeping in until lunchtime
b) Waking up, raiding the food cupboard, taking 2 hours to get ready to leave the house
c) Leaving the house dressed in entirely inappropriate clothing for house or job hunting (OK I am feeling SSSOOOOOOOO old right now... pmsl!!)
d) Coming home after 15 minutes saying that it was too hot, stripping off, leaving only a bikini on and heading to the beach.
e) Coming home to sleep again after going to the beach, driving around for a while to find boys to make friends with
f) Waiting around for dinner to be served to you
g) Having dinner and leaving the house to make "friends" with previously mentioned "boys"
h) Coming home all giggly wanting to chat about having "such a great day!!!!"

REPEAT AGAIN FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK!!!!

Not to mention that in this time, my poor eldest had gone to pre-school and cried to his teacher that he had people living in his bedroom and he wanted them to go away!!!

AND one of our friends had organised to come and stay, as we had a baby shower to go to on the weekend just past... so that meant another 5 people staying here, which was fine, except now the 2 teenagers were taking up one of our only spare matresses and an entire room :(

These girls seemed so oblivious to the fact they were being absolutely lazy and impacting on a house full of people........ and I don't want to stereotype teens, but they often don't see outside of their own personal "world" and with these girls that was the exact problem.....

I actually can't believe how little respect they had considering we were nice enough to let them stay here and basically do whatever they liked,,,,, it was the lack of respect that got to me and SSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO I couldn't hold it in anymore.....

Stay tuned for the moment that changed the world... LOL (ok so not the world, but put an end to their easy ride anyway) haha

Somebody SAVE ME!!!

OMG!!! What IS it with distant relatives and teenagers... Its almost impossible when the person who is the problem actually fits into BOTH those categories.

I have been totally missing in action in the world of cyber space for a week at least, you see, my husband got a phone call from his 16 year old cousin telling him she was moving to our home town.

Thinking he would be nice he told her to come and stay for a couple of days..... well... a week later, we STILL have her and her 18 year old friend camped in my little boy's room with no sign of a place of their own OR EMPLOYMENT!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, these girls are young, looking for adventure, and wanting to make a new start in a new town, GREAT!!! EXCITING FOR THEM... but while they are staying here I expect that they would be out daily looking for work and a place of their own to rent..... or is that too much to ask?

AND don't get me started on the fact they have not contributed once financially for food or board for the week. They eat here every day, sleep in until lunch time and go out looking to meet boys at night....

I can really feel that things are going to hit a peak soon, and I don't think the outcome will be pretty....

BREATHE!!!! LOL just BREATHE hahahahaha :) xx

Sleep AND Cheeseburgers........

So, did anyone realise that lack of sleep is the equivalent of eating 2 cheeseburgers!!!! No wonder I am carrying a few extra pounds, between running around after kids, getting up to them through the night, and sitting here on the computer until the weeeeeee hours of the morning, I think I may be carrying around the entire McDonalds worth of cheeseburgers :D

But seriously, If lack of sleep means that I will put on as much weight as eating 2 cheeseburgers does that mean I can pig out on 2 cheeseburgers and sneak off to the bedroom for a long long sleep and I will still come out even..... aaaaaaahhhhhhhh what a life that would be :P

Seriously, I saw the story on a morning news show.... maybe, for health's sake I really should get over my cyber addiction and go to bed a little earlier..... or NOT..... PMSL

Wordless Wednesday - Baby Boy

My littlest man - a beautiful blessing, a calm, always happy presence... I am forever grateful he is part of our family (he was a little bit of a "surprise" LOL - we were "supposed to stop at 2 children but he's the BEST surprise of my life) :)
Happy Wordless Wednesday

Tacke It Tuesday

I don't have any photos of my tackle it Tuesday again this week..... I promise some photos next week......... this week I SCRUBBED and yes I mean literally got down on my hands and knees and SCRUBBED the bathroom....

Wow does it feel great to have a clean spotless bathroom....... I prewarned you all in other posts that I am a hopeless housewife, so it should be no surprise that in order to clean the bathroom properly it was a matter of lots of bleach and hard work... LOL....

I am actually quite starting to enjoy having clean areas in the home.. and am becoming a "nazi mum" the poor kids don't know whats hit them.... listen at any time in our home right now and you are sure to hear:

"shoes off"
"stop right there with that food"
"sit at the table"
"DO NOT splash water"............ hopefully it won't take everybody too long to use a little of their own initiative in remembering my "new rules" and ALL fingers and toes crossed that means less cleaning for me (one can only dream right!!!!)

Rest In Peace Steve Irwin - You Changed Our World

There is absolutely nothing more important to

write about today than the earth shattering tragedy that shook the world one year ago today.... the passing of the world's greatest wildlife warrior..............

Still to this day it does not feel "real" that Steve is no longer with us. I am never more proud to be Australian than when I celebrate the life of such an amazing person. This morning hubby left for work dressed in his Khaki's :)

I chose that picture -----------> because to me, Steve Irwin was such a magical personality, but I can honestly say that I look up to him as a parent. What an amazing father, throughout his fame, his travels, you could literally SEE the love he had for his children..... the adoration he had for his kids shone from his eyes, and his expression............... I am ever grateful to his family that we got to share so much of him with them.

Here in our home, there is not a week goes by without a mention of Steve. He is a Hero to us, and to our children. Mr 4 says at least once a week that he is going to be a "wildlife warrior" when he grows up. He watches his crocodile hunter dvd's and he enjoys every moment. We have pet pythons and bearded dragons and we continually use Steve and his wisdoms to teach our children about the need to have respect for animals and to take action to save and protect them.

I would urge everybody to make a donation to steve's wildlife charity http://www.wildlifewarriors.org.au/ We donate regularly here because I feel it is the one charity I can be 100 % sure uses every cent I donate to change our world for the better........

Rest In Peace Steve, Our Mate........ and everybody mark September 15 on your calendar, it's Steve Irwin Day :)

I Don't... Too Funny....

I found the funniest post today at Thou Shalt Clean. It totally suits me and I think it may have just become my new housework bible... LOL.....

Here it is:

I Don’t…
I don’t do windows because …I love birds and don’t want one to run into a clean window and get hurt.
I don’t wax floors because …I am terrified a guest will slip and get hurt then I’ll feel terrible (plus they may sue me.)
I don’t mind the dust bunnies because …They are very good company, I have named most of them, and they agree with everything I say.
I don’t disturb cobwebs because …I want every creature to have a home of their own.
I don’t Spring Clean because …I love all the seasons and don’t want the others to get jealous.
I don’t pull weeds in the garden because …I don’t want to get in God’s way, HE is an excellent designer!
I don’t put things away because …My husband will never be able to find them again.
I don’t do gourmet meals when I entertain because …I don’t want my guests to stress out over what to make when they invite me over for dinner.
I don’t iron because …I choose to believe them when they say “Permanent Press”.
Please feel free to add more! LOL!

Father's Day Tomorrow!!!

The kids are SO EXCITED that its Father's day tomorrow......... Hubby's latest hobby is Bullriding of all things, so luck has it that a bull riding series has just been released on DVD.... He also wants a "multi-tool" with a knife/screwdriver etc so he can use it at rodeo's. So his father's day is all sorted.

What I really feel down about is the fact that he knows that is what he will be getting. Normally I go all out and surprise him, but honestly, this week there have been so many bills roll in that unfortunately I couldn't buy all the things for him I wanted to.... He will still be more than happy with what he will get, but I really wanted to get him a shiatsu massage chair thingy....... Oh well at least that leaves me with a good gift idea for Christmas :)

Ooooops writing this just reminded me that I haven't organised the kids to make his card yet, and he'll be home from work soon..... better go and do that now ;)

I own a sewing machine... AND........

I have a bit of a confession........ I own a sewing machine AND a serger/overlocker,,,, and guess what!!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!

I can basically only sew a straight line and as for the overlocker... OMG!! I haven't even taken it out of the box yet :O

SO, why do I have them??? Well I guess its a little bit of a quest to be a good mother and make things, a lot to do with the desire to be creative and make some really lovely things, and a little bit entrepreneurial, making some things to sell......

There really are a few things standing in my way though....
** TIME would have to be the biggest one, I mean between my mother/wife/housework activities, not to mention cyber addiction where the heck will I find the time to sew??!!!!

** Lack of knowledge.... Like so many things I have floating around in this overactive brain of mine, I have so many things I would like to do, but absolutely no knowledge in how to do them!!! Although I must say, I plan to self teach myself alot, its a real shame that most of the sewing classes I can find (and there aren't many around here) are during the day... I can't go to those because I have nobody to watch the kids... hhhhmmmmm

** Enthusiastic Children :)... Yep you guessed it, if I ever do find the time you can be sure the kids would like to help me.... and when they are asleep at night, I am way too tired to be dragging out a sewing machine!!!

But regardless of ALL of this.... I DO intend to become a sewing extraordinaire and make beautiful things, clothing and crafty... I found a course running at a local college next year, so I am going to call tomorrow and see if it runs evenings. It's actually in fashion design so I may become a sewing expert yet ;)

Please "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff"

Please take some time right now to say I love you to all you care about.

Tonight I was directed towards a site which shows the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Feature Photography Titled: A Mother's Journey. This is some of the most confronting and thought provoking photography I have seen in a long time. WARNING: If you are easily upset, the photos contain images the journey of a mother nursing her young son through cancer.... he eventually passed away :(

5 years ago, I sat with my husband and family as we watched his mother pass away from cancer. She was 48 years old and I considered that way too young to die. I often think of her, and remember how short life is. But its even more horrifying when you see a child have to battle that way, and the strength of his mother as she stays by his side.

It is such a reminder that SO MANY things we worry about every day are INSIGNIFICANT!!! We get once chance at life and we never know how long we or our loved ones are here for....

Right now I really just want to hold my children close to me and never, EVER let them go..........

Wordless Wednesday - Lunar Eclipse

I wish I had a better zoom lense, but here is the lunar eclipse as seen from the East Coast of NSW, Australia last night :)

Tackle It Tuesday

This inspiration is JUST what I need!!!! I am a self confessed hopeless housewife.... I am never on top of housework, actually it's almost always piles of junk that are falling on top of us its so bad... LOL!!!!

While blog browsing I found this at 5minutesformom.com and its definately gonna be one I join in regularly!!!! YAY!!!

This tuesday for starters we shampoo'd our entire carpet... well actually it was Monday that we did it, and I spent today trying to organise everything back into place!!!! I have so much to do around here that I need a tackle it day every day, but at least if I post my goal publicly on tuesdays I will be more likely to get something done :D Stay tuned, I will find something good for next week and include photos to shame myself ;)......

Cheap fun with the kids

So sorry about the sadness of the previous post, I just needed to share, that honestly hurt to read :(

Now onto bigger and HAPPIER things :) Today, one of my goals was to do something fun with the kids that didn't cost alot. I rarely ever pack all 3 of them into the car to go places, its just way too draining, so we went outside today for some fun instead.

We searched the house together for fun things we could do, and Mr 4 decided folding paper planes sounded fun.... Oh wow it is so good just to let your inner child come out sometimes..... We spent over an hour creating all sorts of strange looking planes and seeing how well we could fly them....

That and making creatures out of clothes pegs. I must say my imagination didn't stretch quite as far as the kids with that one, but all the same, I spent no money and had some great quality time with them today.... which is something I must admit I don't always do......

Its amazing how you can be a SAHM and yet not always spent QUALITY time with the kids..... I would recommend everyone do the same, do something fun and free and enjoy some time together :)

Tragedy - Family Dog kills newborn - Too sad :(

Oh dear, this is one of the saddest stories I have come across in so long..... goes to show why I don't frequent news pages often :( A couple with children from previous relationships, lost their first child together.

The 2 week baby girl died when she was mauled by the family dog which the parents believed was outside as they sat a room away watching TV......... THE POOR THINGS :( I can only imagine how grief stricken they must be right now...

My thoughts go out to them, and I guess it is another reminder of how careful we need to be with animals around our children. ANY animal can turn no matter how tame we believe it to be.

Domain Names for Kids - What do you think?

Oh wow, I just found the coolest article in the news at CNN .... Buy Domain Names for Kids.

Guess what the first thing I did was.... Go and see if my kids names are still available LOL.... I really don't know if I can justify paying for their own domain name for the rest of their lives just in case they use it, but the idea is pretty intriguing.

I guess as time moves on, domain names and the internet are only going to grow in importance, so it probably can't hurt!!! Imagine the joy your kids will get when they open an envelope at their next birthday and you say "happy birthday honey, here's your own domain name"........... NOT!!!!!!

There's still something a little quirky about the whole thing that I like, it must be the cyber geek in me..... :)

My Name is Busy Me and I am a Cyber Addict!!!

How horrible,,,, sitting here carried away reading blogs, googling, engrossed in my cyber world.... Mr 6 months on the sofa and Mr 4 watching a DVD when I realise CRAP..... where is Miss 2.......

Out in the kitchen eating sugar straight out of the container of course!!!!

Phew what a relief!!! No need to prepare lunch now, and at least it wasn't poison......

Time to log off for a while me thinks.........

10 Things I love about motherhood......

1. **The fact that no matter how messy my hair is and how daggy my clothes are the kids don't notice
2. **The smiles and laughter we all share together
3. **That I have an excuse for the saggy baggy parts and stretch marks
4. **That I have an excuse for the grey hairs I have
5. **That I have an excuse not to go out to boring events (because one of the kids has suddenly come down with a phantom illness)
6. **That I have an excuse for the messy house...... well kids are my excuse and I'm sticking to it
7. **That I get to escape from 9 to 5 work (even though sometimes being a mother is harder)
8. **That I get to watch kids movies and pretend its just because the kids want to even though I really love them
9. **That I often have a trip down memory lane through my own childhood when discovering things with my kids
10. **Watching my hubby with the kids (Its a bonus if he's actually taking some initiative to clean up spuke or a dirty diaper) but I love seeing them enjoy each others company

I love sleep.....

I never ever ever get enough sleep....... Poor bubba last night kept me awake from 2am until 6.30... He didn't want boob, he just wanted to chat, sook, have cuddles and play...... I was starting to get so frustrated with him when I looked in his mouth.....

OH MY GOD!!!! The poor little man... his top gums are SO SWOLLEN.... I felt so bad for him I even gave him nurofen. I am normally one of those devil mothers who will let my kids sweat it out..... I don't believe in pumping my kids full of drugs, pain killers, antibiotics, whatever, I think most children these days are way overdosed with all sorts of things, so mine, well generally live with a little pain and a little temp....

But last night I just had to ease his pain the poor man..... Brings back memories of cutting my wisdom teeth, and you know he is SUCH a happy little guy, I can't explain it, but he is an absolute dream baby.... he's exhausted with aching gums, top teeth about to explode through, hungry but not wanting to eat....... and do you know what he does????

SMILES!!!! A lesson for us all :)

YES I AM INTERESTING....!!!!

In a frenzy of blog reading I stumbled upon a great blog The Twinkies. I was really enthused by her Blog Entry.

I am often so focused on Mother Guilt that I fail to realise that I really am an interesting person, and I should be loud and proud of that.

I think often as mothers we feel insignificant or less important than others when it comes to our contribution to society.... Well enough is enough..... Mother's ensure this world has a future and we work our damned hardest to try and raise good people with good values, what job could be more important or interesting than that!!!

CFF - Child Free Friends!!! Making Guilt Worse!!!

"Oh I can't wait to see you all...... I miss the kids so much...... you can relax a little, I will help with the kids, it will be fun....."

All the things my girlfriends said to me BEFORE we made an 8 hour family trek to catch up with them.....

To be honest, I was really looking forward to the time..... hubby isn't known as the best child care assistant when we are out and about in a group of people, so having girlfriends who know this and make a little effort to ease your load is so overwhelmingly welcome!!!!

The fascination lasted a whole couple of hours and then I just felt like my kids were an invasion of their relaxation time!!!

Not sure if it's my own self induced Mother Guilt coming to haunt me, but I really feel inadequate when I am around childless friends.... You can see them judging you, your children and every wrong move that is made.......!!!!!

Kids are kids in my opinion.... mine aren't perfect, and I am not the perfect mother, but I really don't expect my girlfriends, ESPECIALLY ones without children to point such details out to me!!!!

Smoke Signals!!!!

Sorry for the bore with the previous post........ Just a way to jog my memory about the many things I want to scream about!!!! Our muddy, middle of nowhere trip to visit friends was NOTHING on the trip to visit hubby's grandparents!!

Picture this: Small living room, All windows closed because its cold outside and a chain smoking grandma sitting in a lounge chair in the middle of the room...... This is the environment I have to take my children to each time they visit their great grandma!!!

IT STINKS
IT is SUFFOCATING not to mention
CANCEROUS!!!!!

Needless to say we don't stay there long..... It's impossible to really, it starts to make you feel sick just being stuck in the house........

Mr 4 politely told his great grandma that smoking is for bad people and its yucky and would kill her!!!! And believe me I didn't correct him. Fine she's old school and all but who could possibly miss all of the "SMOKE KILLS" ads on tv in newspapers, plastered everywhere.... yet when we visit she still sits and smokes around the children!!!!

The mother in me can't stand it, I didn't bring children into the world to have them subjected to harmful smoke by their own great grandma... not that this woman is particularly the maternal type and I guess that shows............

And we brought the rain!!!!

So it continues..... No rain in Moree for 3 months and of course it follows us there.... Bad thing for us, Great news for the town and their farm crops.... But call me selfish, what a wonderful start to our trip....NOT!!!

Don't get me wrong, I had been dying to see my friend who moved away a few months ago but 3 kids trapped in a house for 2 days and having your car literally "skate and slide" up the driveway to get to the house with a huge risk of getting stuck is a real test of my dedication :) Thank god hubby is a great driver on dirt roads because if it was me, we'd been bogged and trapped in knee deep mud within minutes!!!

We stayed for 2 days, on the second day the kids were released into the mud pit!! Miss 2 found great joy getting "stuck in muddy puddles".... This was after they were dressed to head into town to go to dinner mind you!!!

Its amazing when you are living out of a suitcase and you have dressed the kids in their only set of decent clothes that are clean and CLEARLY said to hubby "make sure they don't get dirty, we are leaving to go to dinner soon" and he replies, "yep ok" that he later tells you "You never told me that!!!" - Men and selective hearing!!!

That night we tackled the driveway again to head into dinner at one of the local pubs... Of course this was the idea of my childless friends. Travelling with children and visiting friends without them sometimes has many interesting insights...... We all ordered good hearty meals and even Mr 4 ate some of his dinner, which for him is a huge deal.

I thought they were really well behaved. Mr 5 months sat in a highchair and had a great time sucking on a potato chip..... Even though Mr 4 and Ms 2 kept themselves fairly well entertained without destroying anything I could still feel the disapproval of the childless parties at the table..... I am definately going to chat about this topic soon, its a really hard one to deal with sometimes!!!

Another trip up the driveway after dinner and we headed home..... Another problem with my kids is that they are night owls, they stay up often until after 10pm, and I am yet to find a way to alter their behaviour... This is fine at home where we do our own thing, but put them in a house with other adults who need to "get sleep" to go to work and fly home the next day and I start to feel Motherhood guilt again about raising obviously feral children whom I appear to have very little control over!!!!!

Thats exactly what happened straight after dinner when we got home, and it had happened the night before. I love my girlfriends, but I was just longing to be at home where ferals can be ferals (even though in my opinion they were doing really well considering they were locked inside a strange house and hadn't yet broken anything) and I can relax.......

After a big tidy up the next morning we left back down the muddy driveway along and even worse dirt road that took 40 minutes to drive along onto our next adventure to see hubby's grandparents!!!!!!

A travelling we will go......

Oh my god have we done some serious travelling in the last week!!!! I have no idea how many kilometres/miles we have travelled but I must say its ALOT!!! We left our lovely seaside paradise and headed off to Moree. We travelled at night which definately makes for easier travelling with 3 kiddies. The trip took around 7 hours and we were driving in the middle of NOWHERE..... No roadside lighting and very little other traffic. It was a shame we couldn't see more of the scenery on the way out there, but we did get to see it all on the way back.... Think little tiny country towns and lots of farmland!!!!

TBC...... Gotta go.... still to come... Armidale, Tamworth, Gunnedah and the joys of staying with friends who dont have children, and as an extra bonus, the joys of staying in a motel room and having a vomiting child!!

Breastfeeding .... The Great Debate...

It seems to me that one of the biggest causes of Mother Guilt, debate and anger amongst women is breastfeeding!!!

I have been browsing many blogs and come across this subject over and over again. It seems that there is a big shift across many countries to limit advertising and samples for formula, in the attempt to "de-normalise" bottle feeding.

Personally I think it is a good move. I don't believe that bottle feeding is the first thing that mothers having difficulty breastfeeding should be offered. At the same time, I do believe that bottle feeding is a necessary choice for many women.

Interesting points of view have been given by many women over at Mom's Daily Dose I feel the most important thing is that women don't attack each other for the choices they make. If mother's and women are going to attack each other then who is going to support us???

More on my opinions later......

See what I mean??

I am so sure it's not just me who does this:

We are travelling to see some friends this evening, and yet again, I have been putting off buying anything for myself.. I mean, why spend money on me when there's SO many other things that it could be spent on right??!!!???? aaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!! Damn Mother guilt!!!!!

So off I went... its not like I wanted to buy the latest Armani suit or anything, nope, simply just wanted some track pants a new t-shirt and sweater......... Oh crap!! Why are all clothes priced over $20 an item :( Don't the store owners know that I must locate all pieces of clothing for $5 or less or for some reason it seems I would rather walk around in rags... I mean come-on!!!! Motherhood guilt at its best right??!!!!

Well I eventually persuaded myself to buy a pair of track pants and t-shirt, spending exactly $22 in total.... still no sweater in sight that I could bring myself to purchase, "oh damn" I remembered that dear husband of mine has a rodeo gig on this weekend and to complete his outfit I really wanted to buy him a nice new "cowboy" shirt...... So off I march and instantly find a $25 shirt that will look great, pick it up and off to the counter!!!

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME!!!! I am so happy to spend money on hubby, who by the way has spent over $1500 on his new hobby of rodeo lately yet I am more than content to feed the hobby by spending MORE money on him......!!!!! Do I not DESERVE to keep warm and look a little decent when we visit friends???!!!!!!?????

And to make it worse I KNOW its not logical behaviour, otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it here would I!!!! I honestly think it comes down to needing to be sure that everyone else (mainly the kids but yep even hubby) has everything they need. And what if we had an emergency while we are away and need extra cash??!!!!?? And hubby can spend thousands on things he wants to do, so someone has to be the responsible party in this family don't they????!!????

All the reasoning in the world doesn't make my behaviour right, but still there's no way on earth I will be buying a sweater before we leave, I might just borrow one of hubby's I'm sure he has one lurking in his overflowing closet somewhere........................................

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Mother GUILT!!!! What is it???

I really think the term "mother guilt" should be added to the dictionary.....

I used to think it was just me as a parent who felt ridiculously guilty over every decision or action I made relating to my children!!!

Who knew that such a strong emotion was about to take over my world the moment I gave birth???!!??? Not me thats for sure..... and perhaps nobody told me because nobody else knew either..... perhaps it is a figment of our own generation, something that didn't exist in the past???

Or perhaps it did exist and just as it is now, nobody talked about it much???!!!!

SO WHAT IS IT??? Making us all feel so guilty.....????My definition:

Mother guilt: An overwhelming feeling of guilt, normally derived from the belief that every parenting action or decision you make about your child is ruining their life and will cause them to spend thousands of dollars on therapy as an adult to recover from the mental and emotional scars caused by your lack of effective parenting skills!!!!!

That is the best definition I could create, but for me, that describes perfectly how I feel at least once a day!!!!

The funny thing is that I used to think it was just me, and I felt that way because I actually was a bad parent..... It didn't take long after chatting to a couple of other mums (while sitting at the computer thereby making my children "cyber orphans" of course) to realise that perhaps I am not the worlds worst mother, nor am I the only one feeling unecessary guilt for the way I cope with parenting!!!

Mind you I am writing this as Ms 2 sits on my lap watching a dvd while I am typing away.... and the local time here is....... 12.50am and she has preschool in the morning!!!!............ oh dear!!!

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Embarassing....

Don't you just love how candid children can be!!!!

Sitting in the doctors surgery,
Ms 2 gripped as tightly as possible without leaving obvious marks so she doesn't jump off my lap to break something else....... when.........

Ms 2: "Mum have you done a poo"
Me: "No? Have you?"
Ms 2: "No I haven't mum, you did a fart then stinky bum."

Oh My God... Is this girl really out to destroy me totally? I slink into my chair and try to hide behind the baby's pram while everyone else in the waiting room not so quietly chuckles to themselves!!!!

Personalities

Babies have personalities from the moment they are born......

I remember noticing with my 3 babies not long after they were born, certain character traits I am sure they will all carry with them further into life. I look at my kids and their personalities often. So similar and yet so different. My little girl is strong, she is tough both mentally and physically... Her older brother, strong but soft at the same time, and the little baby man, well he's just content, happy and relaxed. It will be interesting to see if he stays that way as he grows up.

MR 4:
A fairly laid back baby, always on the go, and always wanting some sort of attention. Intelligent and happy. He's a soft soul...... loves affection.... He's small in build, with a big heart... He can be a lazy kid. If there's something he can get you to do for him instead of doing it himself he will!!!

MISS 2:
A challenge from the start. She is such a beautiful little girl, the only way I have described her personality from when she was quite young is "quirky". She is quirky there's no other way to describe her. She has this cheeky attitude that flows from her without effort. She's tough, she's demanding, she's energetic and an absolute handful. Strong willed yet so innocently adorable all at the same time.

MR 5 Months:
Laid back, happy and content. He is a dream baby. There's nothing more to say. If I could be sure I would have more like him I would have more children... but of course there's no guarantees, and to be honest, 3 really does keep you on your toes anyway!!!

So How Busy AM I???

Welcome to my blog and welcome to my life.....

To give you a quick background I have 3 children aged 4 years, 2 years and 5 months, so life around our home is what you would call chaotic... really chaotic.....

I am not a super mother, I am not a great housewife...... Walk into my house at any time and you will more often then not see a huge chaotic mess.... :)

I love my kids.... I am hoping to raise them to be good people, teach them manners, and like most parents shelter them from the most dangerous horrible parts of the world at least for a little while. This being said you can almost guarantee I:

Let them watch too much TV
Give in too often and don't follow through on discipline
Let them stay up too late
Bribe them with lollies and chocolate at any given time to make my own life easier
Sometimes break down and cry because being a mother just does that to you sometimes.

I really love my life, I really love my kids. I love the chaos, I love being surrounded with them every day, I am frustrated at my own lack of housekeeping skills, but I would rather have happy kids than a clean house, and most of all, I know that all too soon they will be grown up and there are so many things to learn, experience and do together along the way that I cherish each and every moment.