The Granny Flat

I have been absent for some time now. Doing things like dealing with two weeks of school holidays. Normally I love school holidays. But these past two weeks have not been fun. Not for the kids and not for My Beloved and I. We have been working and slaving.

It started when I couldn't take my Beloved's complaining about our sleeping arrangements. Being the oldest of five kids and growing up not to far from where we live now I know how important it is for you to have your own space as a kid, especially when there are a few of you. My Beloved on the other hand grew up in suburbia, the oldest of two kids and  therefore doesn't have a bloody clue! Well, he doesn't!.

'I am sick of our bedroom being surrounded by kids.' was the general complaint, it was worded differently depending on what was or was not happening at any given time.

'The kids HAVE to have their own space love.' I'd say.

'So do we!' he'd whine.

'We DO!!' I'd counter and so on and so forth.

Finally I snapped.

'RIGHT! You want a room not surrounded by kids? Then you need to build the granny flat.' I said.

'That would be great but I dont have the time.'

With three jobs and our two business ( still working at the tour business) he was not making excuses so I couldn't say anything. Though I did. ;) Coz that is how I roll.

'Well of it bothers you that much you'll have too find time or shut the hell up!'

Yes, I know. I should have been better than that and just been 'supportive' but I do hate people whining at me. ;)

One night after he had left for work and Big Miss had spent all day rearranging her bedroom into a 'mini' bedsit type deal ( though minus the bathroom and kitchen) I sat down and thought about how I could give everyone what they wanted without having to pay someone else and for that matter without it costing a small fortune.

It was not long after that I had an ingenious idea. IF we could somehow turn what is currently an old piggery but long used as a shed into the guesthouse I have always wanted it to be, we could get The Man Child and Big Miss out of the house ( and that bloody pool table taking up space in our lounge room). Which would mean we could reclaim our old Bedroom ( i.e the biggest in the house) and everyone still gets their own rooms.

'I am a genius!' I proclaimed to an empty lounge room. No one is ever around when I have genius moments or when the house is immaculate, both of which don't keep me up at nights, but it would be great if just once, someone other than the pets  were around to witness it!Then, after my self-congratulatory rush I realised we'd need to buy doors and window and more bricks and tin for the roof and, well lots of stuff. I was a little annoyed at how not genius I had turned out to be.

Because I do love a good daydream I decided to pretend we had all the items needed and I'd just plan it all regardless. Which was the smartest thing I could of done because I soon discovered we had two windows and a sliding door that could be moved from the current placement  ( in our house) and use them in the granny flat. That did mean some bricking up would be required and as luck would have have it could also mean we could 'brick up' a fire place in our bedroom ( where one of the windows is currently 'living'). I was a genius again and I knew that My beloved would be seduced not only by having our old room back but also by the fireplace idea. It was doable!

I waited til he was home the following morning and I hit him with it.

'OH MY GOD ADAM!' I sort of shouted at him. 'I have had  THE MOST ingenious idea!!'

'Sure!' He mocked me, laughing. 'I'll be the judge of genius around here.' he added smiling.

I told him all about it and dragged him from room to room selling the idea. I ended with the icing on the cake, the fireplace.

'Of course, with this window gone,' I said as his eyes glazed over with an 'oh my god that is a LOT of work' look 'We could replace it with a fire place! A Fire Place!' I said again.' Imagine going to sleep with a fire going, how romantic.' I said nudging him suggestively ( hey what ever works!!) he laughed, but I knew I had sold it!

'You know,' he said to me ' I do actually have enough tin to cover the shed...'

'YESSSSSSSSS!' I shrieked. ( I get excited easily it seems.)

We have been planning, discussing and even started doing some of the requirements towards turning the shed from, well, a shed to a basic but fully liveable granny flat. There is no plumbing going in, I figure I'll be assured to actually see the bigger two that way, because everyone has to use the toilet and bathe after all!

Stay tuned for more. I am soooooooo excited! :D

The Man Child pulling the old rusty tin off the shed roof. One photo for now...
I want more work to have passed before I bombard you all with pics!

A Milly moment, hypochondria and nicknames.

There is always a hypochondriac in every family. The extent of their hypochondria usually differs one family may have someone who checks themselves in to the hospital on a regular basis another family may have one that freaks out a little about something. When it comes to choking I am the freak the hell out and worry about how stupid you look later kind. I am not even the hypochondriac in our family. Little Miss is. She has cemented her place in that role over the years for a number of things from a small mossie bite (that was a little red) making her 'so incredibly itchy' to a splinter, so small I still question whether or not it even existed, requiring a dramatic 'get it out, get it out'.

Last week however was a classic 'Milly Moment' and has been the source of entertainment for the Man Child ever since. It has also been the source of more dramatics for Little Miss. It started, like most things do around here, with everyone playing outside while I was drifting between putting clothes in the dryer and washing machine and folding and putting clothes away.

"Oh mum" came some sobbing far off in the distance "Oh MUM, MUUM, MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM." the hysterical cross between a scream and a cry was coming closer and I started running outside. Oh my god I thought what has happened.

"WHAT? WHAT"S WRONG???"

"MUUUUUUUUUUM I have rabies, I have rabies, ohhhhhhh no I think I have rabies!' Little Miss sobbed and stopped running she stood on one leg holding the other with tears streaming down her face. I stopped worrying after I heard the word rabies.I knew there and then it was just another Milly Moment.

"You don't have rabies darling."

"What happened?" I asked looking at her ankle that aside from some moisture and some dirt on it, it looked to be in damn fine shape.

"We were running. We were playing tiggy and (sob) and then (dramatic breathing) the dog bit my ankle (talking, breathing and sobbing faster) and there was all this foam stuff on my ankle (starts crying again) and now I probably have rabies!!"

"Mill, trust me, you don't have rabies."

By now the kids had made their way up from the paddock and  Littlest Miss had been woken by the commotion.

"She is fine mum." The Man Child told me laughing " They were chasing each other and I was mucking around with the dogs. Buster grabbed her ankle and she looked at him then started screaming about foam and how she had rabies. It was so funny."

"Shut up Ashlee!" Little Miss cried. " It is not funny!! I could have rabies."

"Oh my god" the Man Child said, "you think you have rabies... that is the first sign of having rabies!!"

"Ash." I warned

"It is not funny when someone has rabies!" Little Miss cried as she ran inside to wash her ankle.

" Don't Ash." I told him as the girls started talking about how funny it was. Later that night as we all sat down for dinner the Man Child who was in a jovial mood started to annoy his sisters, Little Miss as usual took the bait and began to get up set.

" Calm down rabes." the Man Child joked.

" DON'T CALL ME RABES!!!" Little Miss yelled

" Oh NO, mum, I think Milly definitely has rabies... getting in a rage from a simple comment is the second sign..."

All week at some point in the day someone has referred to her as Rabes. At first she was upset but now she realises that if she does not want to keep the nickname for life she had better not react. Turns out the kids have nicknames for each other that I had never previously known before they are as follows

Little Miss - Humpback your dads fat. ( though now it has been replaced with Rabes)
Miss Independent - Skelator
Miss Thinker - Pimple Bum
The Man Child - Chubby
Big Miss -Freckle fart from Kmart ( but she decided to try and start a new name of Goldielocks, it just doesn't have the same ring to it does it?)
Mr Cheeky- Devil
Littlest Miss- Brat ( though Miss Thinker goes further and gives her entire nickname- Annoying little brat child)

How is that? What horrible siblings! Though they do all assure me they are meant and said with love! Must run in the family as My Beloved's nickname ( that I call him) is fat boy .Mine is  unknown because as he told me I call you a lot of things, just not to your face ;)  Sadly I'd better clarify he is more than likely joking OK!

Mother Quotes and Us

I was reading a post at Psychology Today after Google searching for Mother quotes, it popped up and I found what I wanted a list of quotes, about mothers to help me write this in between getting breakfast ready, kids dressed for school and dropped off and finished before I go to visit my mother for a few hours this morning. So a little ten mother quotes and how accurate they are, in our family. You will note there are forty others I didn't bother reading or read but didn't want to actually put all that much though process into the post so ignored.

#1 A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. -Tenneva Jordan

This is very true in our house and it extends further than pie, it goes all the way to cakes, pastries, lollies, ice cream even dinner items if someone has burnt or not put enough on ( doesn't happen often but when it does I wanna cry.) It does not however extend to chocolate. NO NO NO!

#2 A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. -Peter De Vries

The older my kids get and the more of them we have the truer this becomes. We are not even suburban we are rural. Sympathies accepted.

#3 Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. -Pearl S. Buck

I am the queen of scolding lately, in fact I tend to scold more often than not but when I do breakout the kissing god help those little and not so little tackers I could just eat them up they are that damn cute!

#4 All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. -Oscar Wilde,The Importance of Being Earnest

There is a big part of my mother in me, but sadly an even bigger part of my father, much to everyones chagrin  But the real tragedy of this is that Big Miss is every ounce her mother... I really feel for her future husband, I do hope he is secure in his manhood and has a great sense of humor!!

#5 Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease. -Lisa Alther

This strikes me as particularly true at any moment on any given day, except shortly after waking... every plane would crash and burn if I was in control of the skies... of course I wouldn't personally be comfortable with a air traffic controller's only qualification being a mother, as there are times mothers lets something 'drop' ( well I do anyway) for the overall good and knowing my luck I'd be in the plane that dropped.

#6 Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that suppose to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing. -Toni Morrison, Beloved

Yes this is very true of all parents I am sure. I don't care that two of my kids are either a year older than I was when I had the Man Child or a year younger, they are my little kids and always will be. Hell, I still feel the need to remind the Man Child to wash his face hair and bits every time he walks towards the bathroom... If possible I'd still dress Big Miss in frilly dresses and a nappy... the older she gets the more I wish I could!

#7 There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Any mother who says the above quote is not true, is lying through her teeth. Full stop. End of discussion.

#8 When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway. -Erma Bombeck

This one is very apt when it comes to me. They are called lectures by the bigger two but they will be listened to and they will be absorbed, if for no other reason than they know damn well they will hear the advice and reasons ( good and bad) over and over again, until they obviously have learnt from them.Because that's how I ( mothers) roll.

#9 Mothers are all slightly insane. -J.D. Salinger

Ain't that the truth? 

#10  By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Ditto.

Well i managed to finish this between getting breakfast and driving one lot of kids to catch their bus, the other three have  15 mins at best to get to school before they consider themselves late which I think just proves how true #5 and 2 are, also, possibly #9. Time for me to tidy up this god forsaken mess and visit my mummy. Have a great day!

The New Adventure

My Beloved has been thinking and talking about starting a new business in the Tourist Industry. You see we began our concrete garden edging Business ‘Kerbs’ when we came back from Western Australia it was flourishing and doing well, then I got pregnant with Mr Cheeky and Littlest Miss. I couldn't work any more and you do need 2 people to do a good job. So for two years nothing happened as we stopped advertising . My Beloved asked a taxi driver one day whilst he was out how hard it was to become a driver and then he set about doing what needed to be done.

Around the same time he also approached a tour company  about a job doing ‘Tag-a-long’ tours of Fraser Island and he got a job doing that three days a week. Because he loves the beach, camping, fishing and meeting new people it was perfect for him. He’d wave goodbye Sunday night and be home by 8 the following Wednesday night. But there were things he’d do differently he said. He’d focus more on the spots the locals knew and loved and less on the tourist stops. He’d also personalise it more. So he asked me to start working out a website and find out what he needed to do to get into that industry. Like the awesome wife I am I have been doing it for him and it seems that the right time to take slightly bigger baby steps is now…. Wish us luck!

I have added a link to our Kerbs Facebook page so feel free to ‘like’ it for us. As we will still continue to carry out  that business  as well with the Man Child helping his father, instead of me. Until Littlest Miss is in school of course, luckily for me that is still four years away. Phew!!

While you're liking things you can checkout the Facebook page if you have not already. My7LittleAustralians   but ONLY if you want too. If you scroll to the bottom of the homepage here on the blog you'll find a Pintrest widget that I added yesterday it can take you to the Pintrest boards I have up. If your into that sort of thing!  I am considering myself a computer genius as a result ;)  Actually it is all thanks to Code It Pretty  a great blog that explains in really easy language how to use code and CSS in your blogs websites etc.

The Idiot Box

We have been TV free for the past three (or is it four?) days. I blame ‘progress’. Even before the analogue free to air TV channels were phased out or switched off depending on who you ask, the digital TV reception was crap… at best! We didn’t get two channels and a third was constantly flickering and teasing us when ever we tried to watch sporting events, delusional that this time we had a chance at actually seeing the thing.

Last week the TV started to flicker and then freeze and then lose all signal for the day. THAT is really bloody annoying. But it would come good again and all would be forgiven. That was last week. This week we have ZERO signal. My Beloved, Little Miss and Mr Cheeky were the most effected by the sudden switch off of moving pictures transforming them from functioning humans to deaf and not, at times, to far from drooling zombies.

The rest of  us managed OK. During the day light hours, for me however the real torture happened at night. After I had the kids in bed and done what ever it was I had to do…. Why?  I sleep with the TV on, turned down almost inaudible but it MUST be on. This terrible habit first started when we lived on the other side of Australia. We shared a house with my parents and brothers whilst we were on our ‘working holiday’ though really it was a working holiday for all the adults except me I was the housekeeper. If that makes you think it wasn’t all roses and sunshine then you must not realise that the pay off for that was free baby sitting.

When ever I wanted or needed it. Up until then I had on maybe four occasions done something child free. I also had not had My Beloved home every night or every five nights for many years. ( I was used to doing everything and not getting a break from the kids. It was fine by me too. I am not complaining. It has its benefits and the main one was total TV programme control after bedtime and truth be told before bedtime to if I wanted to).

The only downside for me was our bedroom had a TV and after everyone toddled off to bed each night My beloved would watch a movie and I would have trouble going to sleep. Eventually I had no trouble and that is when the real trouble began! Fast forward 2 years and if anyone so much as dared to turn the TV off in the middle of the night on their way back to bed after getting a drink or midnight snack i would wake up shortly after with a fright. It didn’t seem ‘right’ as I was so used to the TV droning away in the background it’s silence would be quite literally deafening.

So this week I am sure you are starting to imagine was rather difficult on me. The first night I lay in bed for three hours staring at the ceiling unable to sleep. I think my body clock was set at ‘bedtime  is when the TV goes on’ and not at a normal ‘when you are tired’ pattern. the second night I had extra teens sleeping over and they kept me up til two. Well not really, but because I had no drone of the TV I got to listen to their chatter and most of it was either completely inane rubbish with words like Yolo and OMG spoken as a word!!!  ohemgeee ( Is that even normal?) Or just utter tripe. The amount of time I heard ‘Cool story bro’  or ‘Do it again and see what happens’ astounds me. Surely you only need say that once, then the next time show them what happens? Anyway I digress.


I finally fell asleep an hour before My Beloved arrived home from his night shift driving taxis and  when I  was woken an hour after that I was harassed for ABC 4 kids by Mr Cheeky I had to suffer what is best described as ‘kid show’ withdrawals. It sucked. For us both! Eventually My Beloved woke up and he tried everything to fix the problem. He even bought new connections, a set top box and a Blu-ray player ( I do not really know why) it was second hand and did not have a remote, which explains it 20 dollar price tag but not, My Beloved’s difficulty in not understanding why we couldn’t watch anything on it (besides the fact we own 1 Blu-ray disc and probably a  million DVDs.) it turns out the Blu-ray movie he brought gave you the option to chose the language it played in and the machine was very sure that pressing play is not the same as pressing ok!

The fact our DVD Player has been playing up (after years of hard work) sent My Beloved in to a ‘I will fix this if it kills me’ frenzy and before long he was on the roof fiddling with the aerial and booster box attached to it. He even climbed up a tree and cut branches down (that was a positive as the leaves were really clogging our guttering) and still no signal. Then for a very short moment in time we had 93% signal and things were looking up. Then nothing.  I didn’t get to witness that as I had taxi duty with my bigger kids that afternoon. My Beloved cracked it and said ‘That’s it no TV! I give up.’

‘The problem in in the wiring in the wall.’ I said when I got home.
‘What? It can’t be! It is the aerial, it has to be.’ he said looking out the door at the aerial above. ‘Stupid bloody digital TV'.’ he muttered
‘It is in the wall.’ I said. ‘Trust me, you have replaced everything else!’
‘It can’t be!’ he said ‘Nothing can get into it to do anything to it.’

No I thought, but that rough tug I gave the connections the night the signal was lost probably has a lot to do with it.


‘It is definitely in the wall.’

 

I said. ‘Trust me, I know. Call the aerial man.’ It must have been how I said it or the look on my face because he stopped and looked at me and said.
‘WHAT DID YOU DO?’
‘I MAY have bumped it, a little too enthusiastically.’
‘Well you could have told me that!’
‘I didn’t get a chance!’ I said.

And I didn’t… honest.

1 down 4 to go

If you missed my last post 5 things I really want to finish fortnight. ( Even if it kills me!) Then this random coupling of photos may make no sense especially since I don't plan on saying too much. I have an open can of blue paint and a child's bedroom to 'beautify'.

             The dining room is finished ( OK besides a TINY bit along the top) I have tweaked the picture so the

             pattern stands out. Obviously i have no imagination and blatantly copied the pattern in the picture 

             below. They do say however, imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery, or the most annoying, 

             it depends where you you stand. ( yes i added that last part!) See the two paintings? Big Miss 

             painted the top one and the Man Child the bottom. I don't need to buy art prints when they do such

             a fantastic job. Wouldn't you agree? 

 My Inspiration 

(image source) How gorgeous IS this?

5 Things I really want to finish this fortnight. ( Even if it kills me!)

So for those unaware I have turned 35. Yay me! I also have been spending weeks doing some painting. I have painted tiles so that I can finally get the kitchen splash back in place… I have half finished. So that is my number 1 top priority.  All of my finish this fortnight list is painting related!

#1  FINISH THE KITCHEN SPLASH BACK WOMAN! ( a good four days required)

#2 FINISH THE DINING ROOM FEATURE WALL WOMAN! (it will take half a day at most)

#3 FINISH MISS THINKERS BEDROOM FEATURE WALL! (or at least the background colour)

#4 FINISH PAINTING THAT REALLY SMALL SECTION OF CORNICING I MISSED ABOVE THE PANTRY (it really is only 15cm long and possibly 10 wide, why  didn't i do it in the first place???)

#5 THAT UGLY WALL IN THE BATHROOM, IT MUST BE PAINTED. ANY COLOUR! I DON'T EVEN CARE WHAT. ( except for brown,yellow,green,black,red,purple…)


Oh and finish Miss Independent's name on her bunting and the gold (all the white,except the bunting) if possible!!

#1 Miss Independent's wall needs her name finished and the odd 'girl' painted on then it is completed.

#2 This is the best shot of the dining wall, I have a small section on the other side of the glass slider to do.

#3 There is no shot of my sharing the rest of the kitchen in photo as it looks so bllllllllllah with the tiles showing up just how yucky it is! Sorry! ;)

#4 The start of Miss Thinker wall and below the picture that inspired the idea. No credit though as I have none but will be searching for it later today.