Friday, June 10, 2011

House of sickness

I'm sick. My head is full of snot and my body is aching. I've done nothing but sit on the lounge and do credit card damage for 2 days. Every second step I take I'm knocking into something left where it's dropped on the floor - current inventory 1 pair of New Balance kids' size 13 joggers, 1 size 11 Target pink jogger (ugh I'll have to track down the other one later...), Sylvanian families paraphernalia, a towel that is covering the coke Curtis spilled while pouring the leftovers from fast food Friday/movie night from one cup to another, a small pound puppy, wipes, and a pair of size 14 New Balance joggers that almost perfectly match the child's but yeh, belong to someone who should have put them away instead of leaving them scattered. That's what I can see. Behind me is the craft table, and there's sure to be about 3 days worth of paper cuttings and crap underneath it. To my right, boys, quite handsome little boogers, but attacking each other while yelling fight fight fight.
I think I'm getting better, but I'm not sure I want to! Because getting better means cleaning up, and perhaps even scarier, looking after the sickies that will fall after me. Kimbal is showing signs of a sniffle, and Peter is resting on the lounge nearly asleep at 8.15. Oh no. And it hasn't been that bad doing nothing for 2 days, although you can only refresh facebook so many times and check the chat lists before you think perhaps there is something more productive you should be doing.
One enjoyable thing we did do today was sit and watch the photo dvd's my stepdad made for the kids. The first one was Kimbal's christening DVD, then last year he made one for Olivia's birthday and then Luella got hers made because she was the only one who was aware of the dvd's to wonder why she didn't have one. It was very predicably cute to see them all as little ones again, no feelings of dread, and we all oohed and aaahed and giggled at appropriate places. It's funny how they look so different to when they were babies, but still so much the same. It's also funny seeing the changes I've had over the past 7 years, the self cut ultra short fringe on black over dyed hair probably wasn't my best look.
Righto, I'm off to have a bath before Peter does fall asleep and I get the supervision of the kids by default.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Just random things

* It only took me 2 guesses at my password to get into my blog today. I wonder how long I can keep up blogging this time?
* Sid the Science kid is on tele. My big dirty tele. Should clean that one day.
* Loading some princess dress up app on my phone for Luella who is telling me, as it loads 'I love when it loads, I'm excited when it loads, why's it not loading?'. That's an improvement to when she called 'loading' 'floating'. I had no idea what she was talking about. Now she's sitting on my arm while I type, and the app loads. I need to log out of itunes after we discovered $18 worth of apps added to the phone. I still can't figure out which ones they were.
* It's a hot hot day here today. Really dry heat though, which is preferable to the muggy, 'can't bring myself to do anything', all encompassing type of heat. I still don't want to hang out the washing, but I am comfortable sitting in the air con.
*. Olivia and Kimbal aren't in this room. If they are anywhere near sleeping Curtis I am going to lose it. I'm already not entirely happy with them for walking around in their 12 (Olivia) and 10 (Kimbal) pairs of school socks, all layered up and making their feet look like bricks on the end of their legs. It's hard enough to get one pair back into the washing basket, and then their clean sock basket.
* these random snippets are turning into paragraphs
* I just had leftover spaghetti for lunch, and managed not to get any sauce on my new white top (new to me, old for my sister!).
* Peter's at work, but he doesn't start back until next week.
* Olivia is now dressed in her school uniform and 12 pairs of socks. She just asked where her school shoes are. She's going to be disappointed when she tries to put them on lol
* On my floor, that I can see - 1 sippy cup, 1 bowl, 1 head of a doll (used for doing hair styles on, but out of the corner of your eye looks a lot like Curtis), 1 fly swat, 1 cow, 1 dress up tiara, 2 thongs, 1 wand, 1 sweet potato (huh?!), 2 swim tops, 1 brush, 1 toilet roll that has been dressed and glittered, 1 bottom of a Christmas tree angel decoration, 1 highlighter (that should be in the craft box and as a consequence will now be going into the bin - or my secret cupboard where all 'binned' things live until their resurrection).
* She got the shoes on!

That's it for now.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

One of those days...

So we didn't have a fabulous day here today. I'm sure if I concentrated really hard I'd come up with some shining moments, but it was overwhelmingly a day that I am glad to see the end of.
I'm supposed to be returning to work this year, and starting in an entirely different career. My feelings on this change hourly (I'm not kidding, maybe I do have too much thinking time) but today - even despite of the horrid nature of these 4 all day - I want to stay home for that much longer. I want to keep them in my own little bubble, where they can't be influenced by anyone else but our own family. And at times, when I wonder if it's our family bubble that has influenced THEM in a bad way, I want to keep their behaviours contained in our own little world - or their bedroom for their age in minutes ;)
School goes back next week, and we have most things ready. Something that is high priority now is getting K to bed early and up early, as he's never had a bed time before. I thought we had success at 6.30 when I read him a story and left him in his bedroom to go to sleep, he was almost asleep on the lounge prior to me moving him even if I did think it was slightly early for an enforced bedtime. 9pm out he comes, full of attitude at going to bed before he got to play with the craft.
O, once she turned 15 months old, has been a really good sleeper who just takes herself to bed when tired and she seems to be tired at acceptable times so it's not a drama.
L is still sleeping in the loungeroom, on her trundle bed in front of a movie (fraggle rock tonight) but we are supposed to be moving her to her own bedroom these holidays. I think she'll be okay though (even if we have to arrange to have a movie showing in there at bedtime to get her to sleep!).
And C isn't starting preschool or school for some time so he will just have to slot in around the bedtimes of the others ;) Right now he gets a bottle and bed, but if we are going to insist on the others staying in their own beds then I don't know what to do with him. He's not likely to stay in bed and sleep while Kimbal is screaming at the door to come out is he?
I've lost track a bit there about what I was saying. Maybe the bad day just seemed worse because we all need more sleep?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Christmas shopping ho ho ho!

I LOVE it! Online or walking shop-to-shop (childfree, please). I love finding that special something that is so perfect for that special someone. I love bargains, I love the parcel delivery man, I love watching other people struggling while shopping with children (sorry), I love the music, I love the crowds, I love the heat, sore feet (hmmm were there some shoes on sale somewhere?), indents in my forearms from bags hanging, coffee stops where I go through the bags and realise I've bought 2 presents for one niece and none for the other. Did I mention I love the parcel delivery man?! He gave me a beep today as he drove down our intersecting street to stop me from driving away before he delivered my newest arrival, he understands the difficulties in taking 4 little hands into the postoffice and leaving holding 2 little hands and a massive parcel. If I'm not home, and he thinks (probably by the bikes and other kiddy paraphenalia all over the driveway) I haven't left town but will be back later, he puts a note under my door that says 'Parcel at side door'. God love him.

There is only one thing that dampens my enthusiasm for Christmas shopping, and it's that my Christmas funds don't meet my Christmas desires. I have pages bookmarked and carts full online that I won't be able to go through with. Should I take screenshots to give with the later chosen inferior present, testing the theory that it's the thought that counts? Nice try, however if there was a little more thought I would have not bought all of those skinny lattes throughout the year and saved that $30/week for a Christmas shopping bonanza. Now why didn't I think of that earlier...any earlier than November would have been helpful.

So for anyone out there reading, who could be hopefully expecting a present from me this year, here's a list of googleable online shops that I have bookmarked for this year's shopping. My present to you this year could be just to help you help yourself ;)
Lush
Zazzle.com.au (artetorturata)
abe books
book depository
aussie swim store
ebay
bricknet
sseko designs

Happy shopping!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Grateful list

#1 on my list in friends/family/friends, those people in my life who are family but act like friends, and those friends in my life who are like family. Of course my husband is the one who understands me the best, for better or worse. I think of that every time I hear the Goo Goo dolls sing Iris -
"and I don't want the world to see me, coz I don't think that they understand. When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am". Amen.
My kids are just amazing little souls, I have great faith that through the hair pulling and backchatting of their early lives will evolve 4 independant, funny, intelligent, interesting adults with the world at their feet. I am grateful for the opportunity to share their rides through life.
#2 is health, and may I keep my health up until the point I die!
(I think those first 2 points are too obvious, let me branch into the obscure and not so 'beige' lol)
#3 is chickens. I just heard them fluttering about and was reminded that I an thankful for their 3 eggs/day but also for their resiliance when it comes to being child handled.
#4 is baths. I love baths. And reading in the bath, oblivious to whatever is going on beyond the bathroom door. I love scented bath bombs and don't understand how bath products are usually listed as a 'most unwanted' Christmas gift.
#5 is the Internet. I have lived without it, but life just isn't as good without it! I've got friends to keep up with, products to research, banking to do, things to buy, news to follow.
Better go and surf the bet while I'm in the bath (2 more things to be grateful for - my iPhone and phone insurance!)

Friday, October 15, 2010

Nothing exciting to see here

I just needed my password to comment on another blog (enjoyingthesmallthings - very cool vintage pearl comp) so I needed to come here and try all combinations of my usual 2 until it let me in. I use variations on the same 2 passwords for everything, I don't know why I have so much trouble remembering.
Then I decided to update my photo but that's not working either.
So yeh, like I said, nothing exciting to see here ;)

I was reading Australian women's health the other day and the editorial was all about things you are grateful for. What a perfect blog post filler when I have nothing else to write about (I could whinge about the weather, or Luella bashing away at the door knob she can't turn while Curtis is sleeping, or still not having a laptop, or needing to wash the dishes before cooking tea, or...but best focus on the positives!)
1.
At the risk of sounding like I'm not grateful for anything I'll have to cut this short and try to reply later. Lu just chewed on a fairy wand and got a plastic cut on her tongue ;)

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

H

I just spent 12 minutes recovering my password to this account - after testing every variation of my typical passwords I had it reset. I'm sure I have to do this everytime, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with how infrequently I post ;)
adding to my posting struggles this year is that my laptop has died, and I am now using my iPhone. Excuse predictive text induced typos and lazy grammar, I'm already getting aches and strange twitches from touchpad typing.
So, why am I here?
Once again it has to do with recording thoughts, typically relating to kidisms but stretching into the wider world as my life evolves further away from nappies and bottles. I now have 4 kids who are 6 and under which is much less chaotic than it used to be. I feel a little bit average these days when people ask if I have kids/how many/ages, and I feel slightly panicked when I see people with 3 under 3 even though that used to be me. So if that is you, take heart, embrace the chaos because things do settle down ( and once they do you realise you must have been caught up in the insanity to spend ridiculous amounts of time, money and energy on online stockings of nappies when there are so many beautiful clothes and shoe shops for adults online!).
Tonight while I was washing up (because average people do that, people in chaos are excused) I noticed my 6 year old's camera half sticking out from under the clothes pile to be sorted (the amount of clothes I have to sort will never be average). So, in between sink refils, I went to put it back in the 20's style pink sequinned with fringing designated camera case Olivia found in the dress ups box but before I did, I went through what photos had been taken on there recently. Oh how I laughed!!! I wish I could somehow add them to this post, but ut was like looking through a roll of film from a uni dorm party. Examples of shots, in sequence -
an old cage used to temporarily house wildlife (from a friend who used to do WIRES), with 2 pieces of bread inside
the zebra stripes from a huggies tent
a foot on a mattress
Curtis on the mattress, with huggies zebra tent. All sheets on floor
Olivia inside cot, looking somewhat effected by substances
olivia's legs standing on cot rails, no pants but saggy undies. Otherwise fully clothed.
Head shot of Olivia, still standing on rails. Hair fallen over her face completely. Red glow to cheeks seen through hair
a toy turtle on the floor
a toy turtle in the wheelbarrow that is filled with water (lots of these shots, with the turtle in variety of positions)
cheesy Curtis
a few Kimbal self portraits...
Just as I'm typing I know it's really one of those 'you had to be there' moments, but it could be helpful to my future therapy to write down things that made me laugh over the course of raising these spirited children ;) If my computer gets replaced soon I'll post a selection of the pics as a little bit of insight into the observations and activities of the kids.