NaBloPoMo Day 30 – Final Day

Well I have made it! Pretty impressive if I do say so myself.
Now I’m wondering if my followers and commenter's are going to stay with me of whether now the month is up whether they will fall away?  I know I’m planning on keeping up but whether real life gets in the way of not I don’t know.  I must admit I will not miss thinking at 11 pm at night oh no I haven't blogged yet.  Instead I will happily crawl into bed and think I can do that tomorrow. 
As a reward for our efforts I think we all need something so please feel free to take something or all of the things here.
Some Daffodils

A rose

Cheese and Wine

Or red if you prefer


Chocolate Cake

Strawberries and ice cream 

And finally a trophy in recognition of all our hard work
So this is it. My last post for November 2009.
Farewell NaBloPoMo.  But only for now.

Pseudo self sufficiency

Now those who asked about the Easiyo.  I have only made the Strawberry one and I like it.  I like the the idea of having fresh yoghurt without having to boil the milk etc.  Plus there is a way of using some of the previous batch to make the next batch but I’m not sure how that would work with the flavoured yoghurts.  I will need to investigate that.

There were a few reasons I bought the Easiyo.  Girl child has had a fair few antibiotics in the last month and I thought she may need the good stuff in the yoghurt to help keep her tummy happy with good bacteria.

It was also so she would get involved with making the yoghurt.  and I was hoping she stop asking for whichever her favourite character yoghurt was that week / fortnight.  Whoever decided to market food with characters on it must have been declared a marketing genius.

It also means we will have less of the those little yoghurt containers in the recycling or stuff on things around the house as some sort of 6 year olds art project. and I use the term art very loosely in that context.

Plus it’s a step to pseudo self sufficiency.

Girl Child has developed a passion for planting and harvesting.  So earlier we planted potatoes and she regularly asks when we can harvest them.  We have also been given some herbs and I purchased some seeds so just maybe we can be slightly self sufficient and not be so consumerist.  We have a patch of weeds that both Mr E and Girl child have talked about making into an orchard or a vegetable patch or both.  Unfortunately if either of those happened (which I am actually in support of - just not the 3 years or so of why isn't there any fruit, when can I pick x, y or z) I feel as though it’s just another thing that will become my responsibility and that I will dismally fail at.  Just like the house work, cooking and other domestic stuff. 

So that’s the dream of pseudo self sufficiency and the little voice saying Fail! Fail!

I am tired, have a headache and seriously want to go back to bed but we are due at a BBQ in 90 or so minutes so I have to get ready for that. Whinge, whine, whinge, whine….maybe some WINE will help?  Paracetamol didn't!

NaBloPoMo Day 28

So it’s Day 28 of the NaBloPoMo for November 2009 and I have managed to post every single day so far. I have also managed to pick up 8 followers and better than that ONLY ONE is related to me! Which is pretty good I think. I have managed to discover a whole bunch of blogs from all sorts of places and I have managed to comment on quite a few of them. And I have apparently been the first person to give Melissa her first category. Go Me!
So despite all my good intentions I haven’t gotten fitter or cleaned the house much. Pretty slack really when all is said and done. In reality a lot has been said (well written actually as I have blogged every day, thus far) but not much has been done.
They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit and it seems as if I have managed that with my blog.  Now I need to expand it out into the rest of my life. 
We are having visitors on Friday so the first step will be to clean up the house. What scares me about this is I feel as though I just channelled Bear form Bear in the Big Blue House.  Those who have watched it enough will know that Bear has a clean up the house song.  Maybe that’s what I need to motivate me.

Or maybe not. I can see myself going slowly insane if I was listening to that.

Random thoughts for a Friday

I don’t really have much to say tonight so I thought I would share more of the randomness that is my brain.

• I have spent about 90 minutes this evening rubbing Girl Child’s Tap shoes with stuff.  Some leather stripper stuff and then repainted them…and I think I have the wrong colour. How much difference could there be between Camel and Dark Camel? Obviously quite a bit!
• I bought an Easiyo last week and made Strawberry yoghurt. Unfortunately Girl Child and I are the only people in the house who eat yoghurt and she got a tummy bug the day she tried it.  Now I have to eat it all by myself.

• While I love chocolate if I had to make the difficult choice between giving up chocolate or cheese I would give up chocolate.
• I don’t like the taste of alcohol so I drink stuff like Strongbow sweet to disguise the taste.

• Girl child has decided she wants a baby brother or sister and a kitten. I have told her both are highly unlikely.
• I really like Penguins and have since I was quite young. I like them so much we went to the Phillip Island Penguin Parade on our honeymoon.

 

• Boy Child got a haircut today.  It’s short, neat and best of all he likes it!
• I was still helping out at school at 1 pm two days this week.  Yes it does appear that I have no life.

Most important of all:

• If I don’t get at least 8 hours sleep a night I get very grumpy.

Thursday 26 November Thanksgiving – Part 2

I thought I should acknowledge Stacey who inspired the previous post.

Stacey’s post What Are You Thankful For?  I know there were others too but I can't find them anymore so just a big shout to out to everyone who had thankful posts.

As I said that my 5 could change at any moment will here is my revised list of things I am currently thankful for:

Rain,

Coffee,

Chocolate,

Love, and finally

A nice comfortable bed where I am about to go and get some sleep.

Your normal programming will resume shortly.

Yes sometimes I am so silly I even annoy myself.

Thursday 26 November Thanksgiving

Americans celebrate thanksgiving today and I have noticed a fair whack of blogs which are about being Thankful. So always one to jump on to a Blogging bandwagon I thought perhaps I should join in. So my list of 5 things that I am thankful for – in no particular order will follow. Please note: some maybe be deep and meaningful and some may be light and fluffy. They could also change depending on my mood.

Good Health

Yep I am mostly healthy, and my family is mostly healthy too. While Girl Child’s recovery from her adenoidectomy wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, it could have been a LOT worse. Boy Child’s asthma has been playing up a little but not enough to need a Dr, Prednisone or Hospital.

Family and Friends

My own little family is made up of Mr E., Boy Child, Girl Child and Me. A nice neat little nuclear family.  My birth / family I grew up in is messy with steps, halves, possible halves and fosters. Clear as mud right?

Anyway it’s only been recently when I have actually been able to be in contact with my sister.  Which is nice but kind of weird. Now as adults, we are finally able to have a relationship. So I am thankful for being able to have a relationship with her and with my extended family.

I also have friends. A small number but still I have them. People I can and sometimes even will talk to about stuff.

Employment

Mr E. and I both have jobs. Given the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) there have been job losses but we haven’t been affected.  In fact I don’t think I know anyone IRL who has lost their job. Then again see the number of friends I have.

Gluten Free Lollies

Recently I have discovered GF lollies.  Not just a jubes or sour worms which i have found in the past but lovely 1 kg bags of mixed lollies.  Bananas, snakes, jelly babies, strawberries and cream…. umm I’m getting hungry now.  I thought they were going off the market so I saved a bag in the wardrobe.  Then I discovered they were being sold in a different shop but I need to see if they have continued to stock them.  GF lollies that even taste okay for normal people.  Really something to be thankful for!!!

Mr E. being a geek

If Mr E. wasn’t a geek then I wouldn’t have this shiny little laptop on which to play.  I won’t be blogging because it wouldn’t really have occurred to me.  And then I won’t have met all the interesting people who’s blogs I read and who read mine.

So with that I will leave you.  I hope those celebrating Thanksgiving have a great day.  For those of us who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving have a great day /evening no matter what you do! 

Putting things in perspective

Just little niggling things like a ‘discussion’ with a child about what flavour antihistamine they have been given, having to lug a large musical instrument around the school because renovations mean the easy way is now blocked off or waiting in the bank for 20 minutes only to be told that you can’t do what you were told you can do on the phone last week because rates etc have changed. 
And Stupid (yes it deserves a capital S) things like deciding to walk to school to pick up the the children from school without realising it’s 33.7 degrees!  Those were just some examples of what happened today but as I said just little niggling things.  None of which probably wouldn't have bugged me so much if I hadn’t gotten home form being company for a friend just before midnight.
So I was frustrated and did my usual coffee and chocolate comfort eat thing.  Today’s was a GF Chocolate Chip muffin from Muffin Break.

I got home to fine this gorgeous post from the lovely Melissa.  Thanks so much for that, it was beautiful and made my day.
But it was life itself that of course gave me a wake up call.
Finding out that a baby who recently had surgery is back in hospital.  It’s been almost 12 months of struggling for that beautiful little girl who really needs a break, as does her family particularly her Mum.
Then there was this post from Madmother about the fragility of life.  I could have sworn I had commented on that post but that’s not the point.
And finally there was finding out that a Face book friend’s Grandmother had died today.
So while I was tired because I had been with my friend who’s sister could have died on the weekend and has a long road to recovery, my issues could be fixed with coffee, chocolate and knowing someone was thinking of me. And that put everything into perspective for me.

White Ribbon Day

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The website is here.
I have noticed that 2 people on my Blogroll have blogs on this topic today. Melissa’s is here.  Renay’s story is here. I’m sorry if I have missed anyone.
Ten Common Myths and Misconceptions
Myth 1: Violence against women is an
issue that only concerns women.
Myth 2: There is nothing we can do to
stop violence against women.
Myth 3: Women should just remove
themselves from abusive
relationships.
Myth 4: Some people deserve to be
beaten by provoking the violence.
Myth 5: against women only occurs in
specific groups.
Myth 6: Violent people are mentally ill
or have psychopathic personalities.
Myth 7: Some people need the
violence, enjoy it or are addicted to it.
Myth 8: Violence against women is
caused by drugs and/or alcohol.
Myth 9: Violence only happens to a
certain sort of woman.
Myth 10: Violence only affects a small
number of Australian women. 
Please click on the link to debunk the myths.
Thanks!

Dresses

I was reading this over at Say Something Stacey when I was reminded of something.  I love looking at dresses.  Mostly summer dresses.  And generally red dresses. Maybe I was influenced by Chris de Burgh’s song Lady in Red.
In fact this was one I was looking at today at Rockmans only in garnet rather than the chocolate. I also like this:


And this from Myer:

Now if you ever actually met me you would know there are some issues with this.
Firstly – It is very rare that I go anywhere where I would be required to or even want to dress up.  Generally I will wear a dress to our work Christmas Dinner or to a wedding or perhaps a funeral.  Thankfully funerals are few and far between and all my cousins and friends are married.  We did go to a wedding in March and one in November last year but they likely to be the last ones we go to in a long time.
I have no life and unless you count our work dinner I have not been on a date with my husband in about 3 years or maybe more. So I look at these dresses and dream of Mr E. and I going out and having a proper adult dinner, just the two of us somewhere we can dress up and have adult conversation.

And maybe just maybe dancing… which would more likely be just swaying in each others arms. LOL.
Secondly – I’m so not a girly girl.  I’m sure my post about not being cut out to be a dancing Mum probably gave you that idea.  But it gets worse than that. I would probably spend about 99.9 per cent of my time when I’m not at home in jeans mostly with t-shirts and joggers.  Occasionally I dress up and where boots and a shirt / blouse but generally its jeans and t-shirts.  And to make matters even more woeful they are mostly IT (yes Mr E. is an geek) t-shirts that Mr E. has been given or outgrown along the way.
And finally I refuse to buy any clothes past a certain size.  And so I probably need there to be less of me in order to fit into a dress like those above comfortably without flashing my umm ‘assets’ at everyone.  Unless of course they have changed the size of clothing and the magic number I refuse to go past now fits perfectly.
Oh I can dream can’t I?

Things that appeal to me today

I thought I would find some things that could brighten my somewhat flat mood.  I know other people do this so I was wondering if it would work of me too.
So in no particular order here are some things that appeal to me at the moment.  All Photos are from OpenPhoto.net   Please enjoy.
A rose.
 
Fresh strawberries.
 
This picture.  I enjoy the way the flowers and leadlight highlight each other.

As always…..Chocolate!

Jellybeans…. the colours are bright and they remind me of fun times.
 
These marbles.  The colours, the shape, the smooth, cool feeling when you touch them.

And finally, rainbow of paint colours. Pretty.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and that they appealed to you in some way.
I really like the last 3 rainbow / multicoloured ones.  Now it’s time to go back to the real world!

Life…. sometimes it sucks and sometimes it doesn’t

Yes you read it right some parts of today in the world of E. sucks.

Why?  Well lets start with the fact that Smiley Dog has an ear infection.  Now Smiley Dog has had bad ears since birth.  But this ear infection has absolutely sucked for him poor boy. His ears have been a mess on and off since March. Last night when I was doing the regular ear stuff he cried.  More like yelped. Smiley Dog does not yelp.  Smiley Dog is happy 99% of the time even when his ears are grungy and gross.

This morning during ear cleaning there was blood.  Oh (insert appropriate swear word here). But Smiley Dog was happy and not a sound which seemed to be an excellent sign. Rang Vet and got an appointment.  Excellent. 

Got ready to take Smiley Dog to Vet and picked up my phone.  Had a text message from last night that I’d missed. A friend’s sister has had a bleed on her brain last night and is having surgery this morning. Oh (insert appropriate swear word here) again. When I am away from home my phone is almost always in the pocket of my jeans.  It’s very rare that I do not have it on me.  When I’m at home the phone could be anywhere, on the bench, on my desk or forgotten in the car.  I missed my friends message for 14 hours.  ARGGHHHH! Fortunately the surgery has now gone well which is excellent news. so here’s something to toast with.  Or to drown your sorrows / stresses.

Anyway get Smiley Dog to the vet and the blood was likely to be from scratching himself or maybe a grass seed that has now come out.  I mention that Girl Child had surgery and ended up with an infection etc so I haven't been as proactive about Smiley Dogs meds as I should have been. The lovely vet said that's completely understandable! That’s nice.  Because I do feel guilty about Smiley Dog.  But with Girl Childs issues Smiley Dog has been on the back burner a little.  So back to Smiley Dog.  He recently had blood allergy tests done to work out what he was allergic to if that’s what is causing the ear infection.  Unfortunately it seems that he is allergic to lots of things. I made the comment ”so he’s allergic to life, is he?” and the answer was “pretty much”.  Yeah it was just an off the cuff comment and response but seriously? We had seen an specialist from interstate about Smiley Dog and the results have been forwarded to her so at the moment we are just waiting for her to get back to us.  Plan - we need to just tweak his meds bit and he needs to go back in 10 days. 

On the plus side Girl Child’s blood noses finally stopped on Thursday night.  She had had after at least 1 a day (but mostly 3 every day) except for 2 days out of 8.  Maybe we are finally out of the woods and the adenoid beds are healing.

Life is all about stuff – some stuff sucks and some stuff doesn’t.  I’m glad Girl Child has stopped having blood noses but sad about Smiley Dog’s worsening ears and less than impressive allergy test results.   Most of all I’m devastated about my friends sister and I hope she can get of ICU in the near future (next few days maybe)and continues to recover.

Some days chocolate doesn't help much…

testing something here

okay everyone?

Just trying to see if last nights post can be edited without it changing the time because I did make the right date with it but it was soooo late at night (for me) that I think it might need some editing.

Oh yes it works!  Excellent. Now too grab coffee and reread my late night ramblings.  Wow I must need that coffee it’s taken 3 attempts to write late night.

Shopping and other things that bring home differences

I did grocery shopping today and wondered what other people thought of what I bought.  You see Boy Child doesn’t eat a big variety of food, part of him being an Aspie (he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder –ASD) when he was 6). Read this to see a unique boy child moment.

His day to day diet consists of Nutella or Promite sandwiches (school is a nut free zone),  cocoa bombs (a Gluten Free chocolate cereal similar to cocoa pops), chicken nuggets, hot chips and some biscuits. Oh and sometimes peanut butter. Yes that is it.

When we have other stuff in the house like chicken schnitzel, BBQ chicken, chips (aka crisps in some countries), pancakes, chocolate or vanilla butter cake, choc chip muffins, plain milk chocolate or caramello chocolate,

vanilla ice cream, he will eat those too.  But we don’t always have those in the house.  And if we are out he may get a strawberry or pineapple iced donut. 

What you say? He doesn’t eat any fruit or vegetables?  Well he is convinced he eats fruit because he has had bites of apples over the last year or two.  In fact in the last month or so he has eaten maybe a whole apple in about 3 sittings. Which is very impressive.  And today he ate a 1 cm piece of mango!  That’s huge for him.  We are talking about a boy who just stopped eating everything at 2.5 to 3 years of age so the fact he is slowly adding foods or even trying them without gagging or vomiting is exciting!

Anyway I was shopping today and I bought chocolate.  Caramello chocolate in fact. Note dear readers: while I love chocolate we actually don’t always have it in the house.  Really!  Trust me on this.

Anyway, the last time I went shopping with Girl Child she wanted to buy Fruit and Nut Chocolate. I told her we couldn’t because it wouldn’t be fair to her brother. So that set me wondering how much stuff she misses out on because of his issues.  Now, the stuff he doesn’t eat we don't force him to eat but that mean he generally has nutella sandwiches for dinner about 4 nights a week.  Now I’m sure that would freak most families out but he eats and that’s all that matters to us.  Plus he is adding things slowly.  Chicken schnitzel has only been food in the last 3 years and he will now eat homemade GF schnitzel. In fact that’s what he asked for for his birthday dinner this year.

But his dietary restrictions do mean that we as a family eat way more junk food than we should.  And that is something we need to work on.  But if he continues the way he is maybe by this time next year he will eat a whole apple and we could try to bring fruit and nut chocolate home for Girl child.

Let’s hope!

Note: anyone who read this post before 9.58 am Australian daylight savings time on 22 Nov 09 and is reading it again will notice some changes.  I thought I should clarify and also add in a few foods I left out.

When dinner is disgusting order Pizza

It’s been quite hot here for November. Today was the second day of 37 and above (98.6 degrees F).  Other parts of the country have had it hotter for longer and I feel sorry for them.  And I hope that the bushfires currently raging are under control soon.
So due to the heat (no we don’t have air conditioning) and this evening for dinner my plan was to make a stir fry.  Unfortunately Girl child had her own plan and asked me to make a pizza so being the sucker I am I said okay.  What do you do at 6.30 at night when it is 34 degrees outside (that's 93.2 degrees F)? Make pizza. Gluten Free ham and pineapple pizza to be precise. Now this was an odd choice as Girl child doesn’t like pineapple but I went along with it as I wanted to try out my Chef’s Toolbox Pizza Stone which I had bought months ago because I am a sucker and always buy stuff at those party plan things. So if you know me in real life or ever meet me.  Please take pity on me and don’t invite me to our party plan events.  I feel obligated to buy stuff that generally I don’t need and probably won’t use. Here is a picture of the Pizza Stone and pizza cutter and I was going to use.

 

Unfortunately our pizza did not turn out like that.  It was square and lets just say I wouldn’t be wanting to repeat the experience in the short term.  Girl Child pretty much only ate the ham and cheese and it was my fault that that there was pineapple on the pizza.

Now this where the title of my post comes in.  I am somewhat lacking skills in the domestic goddess side of things.  So when Mr E and I got engaged and moved in together (shacked up, lived in sin, co-habited - choose the term you deem most appropriate) we had this rule that if dinner was disgusting, inedible or just yuk whoever had cooked had to buy pizza.  Since than I have been diagnosed Coeliac so that doesn’t work anymore but we still refer to the pizza rule.  Tonight would definitely be a buy Pizza night.

I am seriously considering going and buying ice cream because it’s still almost 31 degrees and we have none in the house.  And it might help to take the disgusting taste out of my mouth.  Note to self: You need to buy a decent brand of GF Pizza base!

Well I changed my blog layout

But I couldn’t make the one I wanted work so I guess i will need to learn what to do before I can really beautiful the blog.  I think maybe it has something to do with html vs xml vs some thing I just don't understand.  So while I have changed from the dark side I still haven't gotten something I’m very happy with at the moment.
November 19 – So far I have made 19 posts in 19 days.  Almost long enough to create a habit.  I’m hoping I will continue this once the NaBloPoMo because in some ways I’m actually thinking this whole blogging thing could be cathartic. 
I love the fact that I have found so many blogs to read through NaBloPoMo and Blog This.  I love the way bloggers can be anyone anywhere from children (like Boy Child who hasn’t updated his blog in at least 12 months that I know of) or teenagers to people like Olive Riley who when she died in 2008 aged 108 was probably the world’s oldest blogger.
what I have been doing though is blogging fairly late at night at times when I probably have  a whole lot to say but not the words or typing ability to express it.  That’s something I will have to work on going forward. 
I received an email last week from NaBloPoMo about IComLeavWe.  It’s a week where you leave comments for 5 blogs and reply to comments on your blog every day.  So a total of 6 comments a day unless you are going for Iron Commentor which is commenting on everyone’s blog who is signed up that month.  Signing up closes on 21st of each month so there are 2 days left if you want to join that.
Well that’s it for now.  Good night.

Mr E. implied my last post was a cheating blog post so…..

What does he expect? Pages of me waxing lyrical about some IT thing that is meaningless in my life?  No wait that’s what he does. Except there aren't meaningless in his life there are his life!  Actually I am pretty surprised that he is still reading my blog because it is probably one of the few non technical / non IT blogs on his list.
Umm so what to write about that isn’t perceived as cheating or not a real blog post. Life, the Universe, everything?  Well that would take a while so…perhaps I should indulge in some navel gazing.
This week over at Blog This they have had photography challenge entitled Old.  Now aside from the fact that my photographic skills are pretty much nil, I wouldn’t really be sure what Old thing I could take a photo of and so I didn’t do that particular challenge.  What got me though was the number of people who spoke about their parents.  Now some referred to their parents who are now deceased like Melissa and others like Cate P. wrote of parents who are still alive.
So Parents… both my mum and dad are dead.  Now I’m not saying that for the sympathy vote or anything just letting you know.  Dad had Parkinson's and died of a heart attack back when Boy child was 5 months old. It’s interesting to read that Parkinson's sufferers may have had head trauma.  When Dad was younger, still a teenager, he was a boxer.  So like Muhammad Ali he developed Parkinson's in later life.  Not that Dad was ever a world class boxer like Ali but I remember Dad telling me that he had done okay for himself.
Mum died much more recently, in 2007.  She had Motor Neurone Disease and her death certificate says her death was due to respiratory failure.  She had been diagnosed for 13 months when she died.  I have no real memory of how long Dad had been sick for before he died.  Most of the first year of so of Boy Child’s life is a blur.  And my parents did the old we won’t tell you there is anything wrong to protect you. 
I’m still not sure how that protects someone because if people are like me and I suspect something is wrong I pretty much jump to the worst conclusion.  There’s a saying Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.  I’m sort of prepare for the worst because if the news was going to be good someone probably would have told you. I”m so not a glass half full type of person.  Although if it’s got alcohol in it I may make an exception! Just me begin a smart arse there.  In reality i rarely drink Alcohol.  Although some days I do think about taking it up as a hobby but I don't really like the taste.
Ummm I was about to get Deep and Meaningful there and wax lyrical(sorry I like this term today) about my childhood and genetics possibly being the cause of my negativity but quite frankly its getting closer to midnight and I am tired. So I think I should go to bed now.  Day 18 of the NaBloPoMo down!

I’m impressed with Whining and all you readers out there.

You may have read this post where I was happy to have had an international reader and 2 followers.  Well now I have 6 followers and I have had people read my blog from all over the place.  I love the little FEEDJIT map down there which has pretty dots from all over the world:  Malaysia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, the USA, Canada, and of course my lone reader from Switzerland.
So I would like to say thanks for reading my blog,  It’s nice to see the little dots on the map and to read your comments.  I have a warm, fuzzy feeling when someone comments on my blog.  It’s kind of like eating chocolate…. ummmm  okay that’s an exaggeration. Maybe its a little like choosing chocolate? The excitement and expectation of what is too come.  Yes, I am talking about the blog please keep your minds out of the gutter if that’s where they went.
Thank you everyone, thanks for visiting, thanks for the your comments and thanks for keeping me motivated during the NaBloPoMo. 
Maybe soon I’ll actually be confident with what I’m doing here in Blogland and I may even get motivated enough to change from this basic black background.

Here’s to us!  Oh and it can be non-alcoholic if you would like it to be!  Cheers!

Chocolate

It just feels like one of those days.  Nothing happening just a blah type day.
So in case anyone else has had one I thought I should share. Enjoy!

Would you like some  pralines?


Or strawberries in chocolate?



A hot chocolate?


Some mousse?



Cake?



Some cookies?

I hope you found something you like.



This post was brought to you by me.  I think the last picture says it all.

Sunday – Dance photo day

After confessing to the world,  okay only you my gentle readers (I have this bizarre need to add a cackling laugh after that – luckily for you I can overcome that urge!), about my lack of sewing and makeup experience I thought I would post how the day unfolded.
We did makeup and hair and got to the dance studio. The photos were done and Boy child indulged me and cooperated so I could get a photo of both my gorgeous children together.
I ended up finishing the sewing about 12.15 am which was that late because I needed to do my blog post for yesterday to stay in the NaBloPoMo.  And of course it took much longer as did yesterday’s blog post because I was doing stuff after 9.30 pm which seems to be my deadline for my brain functioning at my version of normality.
So one day you may see photos of my beautiful children dressed up for their dance concert which is now on in less than 2 weeks. 
On the down side:
Girl child’s blood noses since 2.30 pm  today – 3
Dr appointment in less than an hour.  Second one in  54 hours (not 30 – I was confused).

I am so not cut out to be a Dancing Mum

Girl Child decided last year to do dance.  She did Jazz Ballet and it was all good until the end of year concert. 

Firstly there was the costume.  Sequins needed to be sewn on.  Thankfully I had people offer to help me and also to tell me I could pay someone to do the sequinning.  Sequinning – my definition: adding those pretty, sparkling shiny things (like those below) to material so it looks good on stage.

 

 

I was so grateful when I discovered that Girl Child’s costume was needed for a troupe performance and some other mother had put the sequins on for us!  Hurray!!

Next issue: I can’t apply make on myself let alone a (then) 5 year old girl.   And I needed to get Girl child’s dead straight hair into curls.  Again people took pity on me for this and I went to a friends house and she showed me how to do the makeup and the hair.  We did practices at home myself and I worked out that the rollers had to be in over night wit lots of hair product to actually stay in for more than a few hours.

Unfortunately I still wasn't good at the whole makeup thing. Let’s just say that Boy Child thinks Girl Child’s photos from last year make her look like the Joker.  And quite frankly I have to agree with him.

 

 

It’s the bad blush job that does it.  The eyes were not bad at all if I say so myself but the blush… yes it did make her look a little like Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight.

This year Girl child is again doing Jazz  and Tap as well.  Boy child decided to dance too and ended up doing Funk / Hip-hop.

It’s that time of year again.  In fact the photos for dance are tomorrow.  Costumes this year required minimal intervention form me.  Hurray!  All I have had to do is sew some press studs and a number on one of Girl Childs Costumes and I need to do some hemming on pants for Boy Child.  Unfortunately the photos are tomorrow morning and I still have some sewing to do.  I did do most of the the sewing myself despite people offering once they noticed how slow and inept I was at it.  I only let someone help with the last quarter of the number only because it had taken me an hour to get as far as I had and I think it must have been pretty painful watching me if you actually have sewing talent / ability.

Thankfully the hair for Girl child is fairly easy (no curls!) and I managed that with only one practice.  The makeup is my major downfall but with two practises and using eye shadow as blush because I can’t find blush that suits I think we have got it.  Photos are in the morning so I will go off to finish the sewing shortly.

I have heard that Little Athletics badges can be painful to sew on and some martial arts have patches as well.  Is there any sport / team thing for children that doesn’t involve Sewing or makeup?  Maybe I could get them into swimming.  Surely there is no sewing involved it that…. is there?

Melissa’s inquiring minds want to know

Melissa posted this a few days ago and I thought I would answer it tonight.  So before I start, thank you Melissa for the questions.

1. What was your favourite subject at school?
My favourite subject at school was performing art.  But generally only when we were doing drama.  Or maybe English.  Particularly once my Year 7 English teacher got over the fact that I was stupid and had actually read most books in the school library.  Oh I loved the term we did photography but I now suck at taking photos!
2. Did you have a favourite teacher? What was it about them that you liked?
I really liked a number of my teachers at school.  Remarkably given I am so uncoordinated I really liked my Physical Education teachers. They were very supportive and very impressed when I achieved something that came easily to most.  Plus my male PE teacher for at least Year 10 and maybe 9 was gorgeous both in looks and personality.
3. What do you like most about yourself?
It really depends on the day.  Some days absolutely nothing.  Some days its the fact I am apparently quite resilient.   Other days it’s the fact that I can create beautiful children.
4. Why did you start blogging?
I think it was because I felt a need to communicate outside my immediate circle but in a sort of way where I could let out my angst and not feel any repercussion I guess.  I’m not really sure. I’d been reading Melissa’s blog and others which I guess made me want to try my hand at it. 
5. Can you show us your 5 favourite blog posts?
5 blogs posts that I have done? My favourite out of the whole 14 I have posted?  Hard. Very hard.  Perhaps I can just choose the ones I think suck the least?  I wonder if that would work….
Okay in no particular order:
Lazy Sunday
The real meaning of Christmas
An Aspie moment in time
What I hate MOST about this mothering gig
The adenoidectomy and its aftermath
6. What do you love most about your partner?
Lots of stuff.  Probably that he has put up with me and my baggage for a start. A stand out example is that he has seen both of my parents when they were dead (that takes a lot to do says me who saw a dead father figure at age 5 and was more than a little traumatised by it).
7. Next to your husband/partner/significant other/children, who do you speak to most often?
Probably Girl Child’s teacher.  I generally help out in the class  4 hours a week and then there is the drop off /pick up chat too. Sad isn't it?
8. What are your 5 favourite books?
It really does depend on my mood and my eclectic taste.  However, if we are talking about the books that either I have read over and over or I feel that impacted my life in some way, they would probably be:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Yes I have it as one book and read it every year from the age of 12 until about when Boy child came along.
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Kiss Me while I sleep by Linda Howard
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Mary Stewart’s Merlin series… I can’t just choose one book from it.
9. Do you have a favourite work of art?
Not really but Monet’s Waterlilies is pretty good.  I didn't realise there were 250 or so in the series.
10.If you could live for a year anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
Wales and Cornwall.  To immerse myself in history and legend, and maybe, just maybe because of Torchwood!

What I hate MOST about this mothering gig

Surprisingly it is not lack of sleep even though Girl Child is 6 and had rarely slept through the night since she was a baby.  Yes she slept through as a baby and then stopped and has probably only slept through an entire maybe 90 days out of the last 5 years.  That's a guessimation because I haven’t kept track (I’m sure the real numbers would freak me out) so it could be worse or better but I’d say that is pretty close to the mark.

What I hate the most about this mothering gig today is knowing when to worry. 

History: Girl Child has her adenoids removed.  Discharge instructions say to call hospital if there is a blood nose in the first 48 hours but you are warned that there is a chance of bleeding for up to 2 weeks after the operation.  If the bleeding won’t stop it’s an issue that needs medical advice. The operation was two weeks ago tomorrow.  We had some issues with bleeding over the first weekend and this week a couple of minor (stopped in a couple of minutes) blood noses which we think  were due to the heat.  That happens to Girl Child a bit in hot weather.

Then today I get a call from school that Girl Child is in sick bay with a blood nose. 

Me:Thanks for letting me know,  is it stopping? 

School: No.  And she has an ice pack. 

Me: Okay I’ll be there in under 10 minutes just to check her out.

I get there have a quick look, she is dripping rather than gushing a great sign as far as I am concerned but it still isn't stopping. By this time it has probably been bleeding for about 15 minutes.  Damn!

Call the family Dr and give the receptionist the rundown.  Get asked to call the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) guy who did the operation.  Okay not a problem.  Give a rundown to the receptionist who asks me to hold and then get put on to receptionist no. 2.  Up shot of that conversation is that if it doesn't stop to take her to hospital.  By this time It’s probably been bleeding for 20 minutes with an ice pack which should help.  Hang up and someone says Hey it’s stopped.  Hurray, finally.

Now my issue is when do I worry?  Should I worry when it’s been 10 minutes and not stopping?  Or when? And does it matter if it’s just dripping rather than gushing?  In my non medical opinion only dripping is less of a deal than gushing but how long do you wait to see when it stops?

Girl Child and I go home because I am worried about her bleeding again and plus she needs a change of clothes.  Have a chat with Girl child and she tells me that it should be gushing and the ice pack in sick bay slowed it down to dripping.  Now I’m more worried.  My default position when I’m worried about medical stuff is call Health Direct. 

So I talk to the RN and the deal is when the bleeding (whether it is just dripping or gushing) has continued for 20 minutes then it’s time to go to hospital.  If there have 3 blood noses in 24 hours it’s time to to the the Dr.  Thanks Health Direct!  I like to have clear guidelines. 

This isn't the first time that i have done the worried mother thing about my relatively healthy children.  On at least 2 occasions I have taken Boy Child to the Dr because his asthma is playing up and been told that he is okay.  Yet we have ended up at the hospital that night.  For some reason with him it appears that my mother worry starts too early or we managed it well enough for the Dr to not concerned.  Yet I know from his history he is on the down hill slide.  It’s not like he crashes big time and gets admitted but he does end up on in Accident and Emergency for several hours.

Enough whining from me but for the record for today the thing I hate most about this mothering gig is knowing when to worry!

That is all.

Blogging at McDonalds or thank goodness for free WiFi

This blog post is coming to you from my local McDonalds playground. It seems that we have been shaped internet wise, due to Mr E. and his obsession with 'something' that has used our broadband allocation. But there is something else going wrong at home too as I have restarted the router and the internet works for a while and then stalls. So me being a Technophobe got peeved and ran away from home!

And to where do you run when to you need to use the internet before 5 pm and have two children to entertain while you do it? McDonalds, of course.

I have had to traipse down to here, buy afternoon tea for the children to keep them happy and to appease my guilt of leeching free internet while I did my work and now while I post this so I don't flunk out of the NaBloPoMo.

Anyway I have to go. Thanks for reading and thanks to whoever decided McDonalds needed free Wifi, and thanks Microsoft for giving Mr E. a laptop at TechEd 2009 so I can actually leech the free internet at McDonalds!

Blog This Challenge 24 - The Real meaning of Christmas

What does Xmas mean to you and your family?
Have you got some traditions?? 
What will you cook?! 
Who will you spend it with? 
Got a favourite Christmas memory? 
How are you decorating??

Christmas…..to me Christmas means family.  To Boy Child and Girl Child it seems to be about presents.  Particularly Girl Child.  You see at some point I had the brilliant idea of asking the children to show me in the brochures what they would be interested in for their birthdays or Christmas.  Since then girl child has taken to the whole marking things in brochures like a duck to water!

A lot of brochures arrived recently, which Girl Child has attacked with a blue pen.  This afternoon she brought me a particular brochure and said “Mum you have to look at this one.  The sale finishes tomorrow.” I think perhaps my little consumer has worked out I generally only buy stuff on sale.

Back on track to me Christmas means family.  Now family could be our little nuclear family just the four of us.  Or it could be like last year with the extended family - 26 people.   Either way, I prefer it when Christmas is relaxed. 

Food wise

When it’s just the 4 of us we do the whole hot baked meat and vegetables thing.  Mr E. is so much better at roasts then I am so in the fast he has often cooked the meat of Christmas eve and the vegetables on Christmas Day. 

We have baked ham, roast pork and baked turkey breast roll.  We also have normal ham. Dessert is Christmas cake or Christmas Pudding or fruit mince pies with custard. Sometimes we have had the Ice Cream Christmas cake instead of pudding / cake and custard.

Traditions

For us Christmas food really starts with me making Gluten free shortbread and fruit mince pies. Usually the shortbread is in Christmas shapes.  I really like the stars the best and I wish mine turned out as uniformly as these ones.

I decided when Boy Child was born that we should have our own Christmas traditions.  So one of those is that we (okay mostly just me) eat shortbread and mince pies while putting up and decorating the tree and later in December watching the 2 televised Carols by Candlelight.  Mr E. loves chocolate coated almonds so we always have those in the house as well for Christmas.

When I was growing up, Mum would not let anyone touch the Christmas ham until Christmas morning when it could be cut and you ate ham on toast for breakfast.  We have sort of continued that and generally have ham on toast or ham and eggs for breakfast.   But regardless of what Mr E. thinks I’m not precious about whether it gets cut early!

Santa comes to Boy Child and Girl Child.  They leave him some shortbread and mince pie and some milk.  The reindeers get a carrot or an apple.  Santa leaves a small gift for the children because he knows that they have family who will give them things.  The gift from Santa is put in a stocking or if it doesn't fit, Christmas tree decorations show the way from the stocking to the gift which is not far away.

The children have their own tradition of having chocolate advent calendar every year.  I think my mum started it a few years before she died and so now we continue it for them.

In the lead up to Christmas we often buy a gift or gift card for someone from the Giving Trees at the big stores.  We also (or sometimes instead) buy food and toys to give to the animals at the RSPCA shelter.  I hope that doing these things makes our children understand more about the joy of giving and of helping others.

Decorations

We have no specific decorating scheme.  It’s usually just “Okay kids you want to decorate here is the stuff.   Go for it!”  We have an artificial tree that is about 110cm tall with fibre optics so it has lights.  We have strings of beads in red and silver, we have little bells in various colours and other baubles.   We currently have a star for the top of the tree.  Of course I can’t forget to mention the the hand made decorations that have come home from day care and school.

Our tree often ends up overly decorated on one side but is beautiful because the children (well mostly Girl Child) put lot of effort into in the decorations.  I am hoping we can get away with not listening to Christmas Carols in the car until about February.  In my experience is only so much Hi 5 Santa Clause is coming, Santa Claus is coming you can take!

Favourite Memory

This isn't really my favourite memory but it does explain why the presents don’t go out under the tree too far before Christmas.  One year I have no idea why but I seemed to be spending a lot of time at home alone.  So I managed to open up my Christmas Present from my family interstate and discovered I was getting a Donkey Kong game.  If you are old enough you might remember them - here’s a picture from Wikipedia:

Anyway I opened the present and got the game out and played it most days for probably the two weeks before Christmas. On Christmas morning I had to pretend to be surprised at my gift when I opened the present. I still have it by the way.

At this point I don't know whether we are staying home from Christmas or going to see family interstate.  As long as we are together, safe and healthy it’s really all that matters.

Thanks for reading my first Blog This challenge.  I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did reminiscing!

Nothing to say here… move along

Tonight I have nothing.  Nothing to say to you, nothing to say to the children except “why are you out of bed?” for what feels like the millionth time.

So far Girl Child has come out because:

She can’t sleep x 3,

Her brother sat on her and now her legs hurt,

Her legs still hurt,

Her knees don’t hurt but the rest of her legs do, and the one just a moment ago:  This is the colour of the sneeze I just did Mum.

Now the colour of the sneeze was actually important given the adenoidectomy because if she starts having blood I'd like to know about it.

Brief interlude as Girl Child comes out YET again this time because no one has checked on her.  BRB after checking on Girl Child.

Back again.  She is re-tucked in and goodnights have been said yet again.

Boy Child was up because:

He needed a tissue x 3,

His pyjamas are too short.  And they freeze his ankles. He needs to find new ones.  Well those ones weren’t too short yesterday.

He is hungry and thirsty.

Okay both children out of bed again to go to the toilet.

 

This is not a normal occurrence in our house anymore and I’m no sure what has set it off tonight perhaps they have realised I have hit don’t give a damn. 

Not sure why I have hit don’t give a damn.  Maybe the time of year, maybe this cold (yes whining again), maybe the work both paid and voluntary I need to do, maybe nothing.   I haven’t had chocolate in a few days that could explain it.

 

Okay why did I just explain asylum / asylum seekers to my 11 year old who is SUPPOSED to be asleep? Probably because he asked and I’m a sucker.  He is back in bed again. I hope.

 

Where was I? Oh that’s right - no chocolate!  I’m supposed to be getting healthy and fit and cleaning up around this place but it’s not really happening.  Although yesterday I was motivated enough to wash take the dogs down to the car wash and wash them. 

Here are two clean dogs.  And yes they are different dogs.

 

 

I also cleaned the rabbits house.  As Boy Child would say: Go me!

Okay bed time for me before the children decide to visit me again.

 

Good night all.  Sleep well.

Lazy Sunday

Today we had pancakes for breakfast or brunch I guess depending what time you got up.  We all have different things on our pancakes.  Girl Child normally has jam, Mr E. always has peanut butter and Boy Child usually has his plain.  Me? Well I like variety so could often be indulging with jam (Strawberry or Apricot the only two we ever seem to have in the house), plain, just butter (as Girl Child did today), occasionally peanut butter or honey or as I did today – Maple syrup.  Okay it’s not the real stuff but it’s still yum.

I remember when I was a child I would usually have strawberry jam, honey or lemon and sugar.  Lemon and sugar – sweet and sour, smooth and crunchy where the lemon juice hadn’t reached the sugar.

Of course I would really love this:

Pancakes with ice cream.

Or maybe this:

Or this:

Thanks to the Pancake Parlour for the images and the cravings they instil.

But as a coeliac, I eat my pancakes at home and I am very grateful that you can buy GF pancake mix in the shops.  Because quite frankly when I have tried to make GF pancakes from scratch they have sucked.  Big Time.

anyway whining about my cooking ability or more to the point the lack of it, isn’t what I came in here to do.  I came in to remember lazy Sundays of the past.

One year my parents separated for a year.  I was in Year 8 so I must have been 13 at the time and 14 when Dad moved in again.  I spent half a week with each parent.  I would go to squash on Sunday mornings from mums and catch a bus to Dad’s when it was over. I’d stay at his place until Wednesday and then Wednesday afternoon catch the bus back to mums to stay until Sunday morning when it all started again.  Anyway it was Sundays I was thinking of ……

Dad used to make the best toasted sandwiches.  We would have them for lunch when I got to his place on Sunday.  they were just simple Ham and cheese, Ham Cheese and Tomato or just cheese and tomato sometimes there would be onion in there too.  He would make one of each one and then cut each sandwich into 4 triangles so we could both have some of each.  Now I’m not talking what I would call jaffles where the sandwiches are put in a “sandwich maker” and the edges are sealed together.  No I’m talking toasted sandwiches, golden brown on the outside cheese oozing out the edges…like this.

Even when Dad came home again some weekends he would make these sandwiches… I loved them so much.  For some reason when I think of Lazy Sundays, I think of Dad and the toasted sandwiches.

It’s a time and thing I can never have again.  For starters I’m a coeliac and GF bread doesn't taste like I remember normal bread to taste. After 14 years GF I actually can’t remember what normal foods taste like so maybe I have built up the memory of normal food to be better than it was but even though some days I want to try to see how close my memory is, it is just not worth the aftermath or the damage to my body.

Secondly Dad died just before Boy Child was 6 months old.  So it is over 11 years since Dad died.  Now I just have memory of the nice Sunday afternoons with Dad and the toasted sandwiches.  They were so lovely!!!

An Aspie moment in time

I recently read this article about the possible removal of Aspergers Syndrome and PDD -NOS from the new DSM-V. Today at lunch I was mentioning this mostly to Boy Child, the Aspie in our house. Boy Child was a little concerned about being considered Autistic rather than an Aspie. You see in his class last year was a child who had a habit of doing pelvic thrusts while saying "Hey sexy baby" at people. This boy was Autistic and that is the first thing Boy child thinks off when he hears Autism or Autistic.

I tried to explain that Austism and Aspergers are part of a spectrum from the severe which could include being unable to communicate, and unable to look after themselves (my example to try to explain to my 11 year old - no offence intended to anyone) to people who can function without help but think differently as he does. Unfortunately spectrum was the wrong word to use.

To Boy Child a spectrum is like a rainbow, the spectrum or colours that you can see. So when I was trying to get him to understand that people could be at any part of the spectrum and still have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Boy child was trying to assign colours to people based on whether someone was on the low or high functioning end of the spectrum. So in my example of a low functioning person Boy child would say "so that person is red, right? And I'm indigo". WT? He then went on with "The kid who did the pelvic thrusts is blue and C is either the one above or below me at Indigo." C is a child we know who is also an Aspie.

Um so maybe spectrum wasn't the right word to use. I was also trying to show what I meant visually as well. Perhaps I should have been using pepper and salt shakers instead of just pointing.

So that was today's amusing Aspie moment. Sometimes they are funny and sometimes they do my head in.

On the article well I'm not sure how I feel. I think perhaps Temple Grandin is right and PDD-NOS should go but not Aspergers. But what do I know I'm only a parent. I do know that I was annoyed about Aspergers being referred to as mild. compared to Classic autism yes it is. But compared to HFA? I think I'm in the camp of AS and HFA are virtually indistinguishable from each other. I think even HFA and Aspergers can be moderate rather than mild. As I said I'm just a parent and it's just my opinion.

Guilt

Remember a few days ago that I posted I had a cold?

Well I still feel like crud. Thankfully though my nose and eyes are no longer leaking. That's a major plus. But I feel pretty much vague, tired and grumpy... oh so grumpy.

So this has meant that everyone in the house has been in the firing line for something. and that sucks. Which brings me to today's topic - Guilt.

The kind of guilt I'm talking about: is a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined. Thanks dictionary.com for the definition. Just ignore crime in there because it's more about wronging someone / everyone / whomever that I'm feeling.

Right before I get started on a tangent perhaps I should just list in no particular order what I feel guilty about this week due to not feeling so great. I think I need to limit it to just this week and due to being unwell otherwise this blog entry may never finish.


1. I have been grumpy at Mr E., Boy Child and Girl Child for things that I would normally be okay with.

2. I haven't read with the Big kids at school since Thursday last week. And I have only helped out in Girl Child's class about 2 hours this week. It's usually 4 with the Kindy's (Girl Child's class) and then 4 with some Year 5 or Year 6 students who need practice reading.

3. We have had choose night (choose what you want to eat for dinner - within reason of course - and make it /eat it when you want) at least twice since Monday.

4. I have not cleaned up or done any exercise remember I blogged that I was going to have you lovely readers keep me on track?

5. That I have had a nap or two during the day most days this week. Even when my children have been home.

6. I have allowed both children to stay up late because I am too tired to argue with them about it being bedtime.

Okay I think that's enough for now. And to make myself feel better I think I will have some chocolate.



And maybe some flowers.



Good night all. I'll try to be less whiny and self indulgent tomorrow.