Tissues, Ticks and Toddlers

It has been a week ( or is it two?) since I last posted  I had a 'sickness', that magically went away last Friday only to be replaced Saturday, Sunday, Monday,most of Tuesday and half of Wednesday with a bad case of sinus. My eye sockets and even teeth and jaw were killing me. I soldiered on though with out the help of Codral ( I imagine unless you have seen the Codral advertisements here in Australia you wont get what I was trying to do there... don't worry, you did not actually miss anything special.)


After spending a great deal of time lying face first over the seats of my couch, my sister's and my mothers couches and steaming my self with endless cups of tea and I don't even want to think how  much forest friendly toilet paper I used ( not exactly soft ) I managed to catch up with some cousins and visit  a sister or two. I also managed to pay out a loan early and forget to pay a V.I.B ( very important bill) which may just require I get another loan as a result... (well not really, but it seems I am in an exaggerative mood today, I wont even tell you what lies I told My Beloved about a certain pair of shoes I now own).


I have had an extra kid since Monday and The Man Child and he have been running wild through the scrub that takes up at least 15 of the 30 acres we call home. Today they have pulled at least 2 ticks of themselves and I have had the pleasure of  yelling at them to put out a 'camp fire' and running into the scrub towards the sounds of terrified girly screams only to find out the boys had decided to attempt to make a funny video. It was not funny let me tell you. They have also been banned from making any more videos (they had plans on a Jack Ass style jump out of a tree into a local waterhole). Idiots.
They have been good and have had a fantastic time so I can not really complain.

My Beloved went to Fraser Island again and this time the youngest five kids and I met him at the local store as he took his group through to Rainbow Beach to get the barge across to Fraser Island. We only had five minutes but the kids loved it and I was glad to get an Ice Coffee, My Beloved was happy to see me so it was 'win, win, win'  for all concerned. ;p


My Nephew had his second birthday and we visited with him ( his mum is a month or two away from having twins) and as a present I decided that a bucket of water bombs would be a good idea... yes he is two I don't know what I was thinking buying that for him, but lets just move on shall we? The kids had a great time running amok and my sister in law came to visit as well so there were millions of kids of all ages and I won't lie I was glad to get the hell out of there (even though I took a lot of the kids with me) I got home to complaints about not having bought home HJ's for the bigger kids who were too cool to go to their two year old cousins house for his birthday.

A billion other things occurred. but like you, I am bored as well and just want this post to end... night all :)

Check out the Facebook page. :)

Sometimes, Being Nice Is Not On My Priority List

Because my mystery illness has yet to actually kill me outright and because this morning I woke up feeling sorta OK. I decided I would go out for an hour or two and visit a friend (you know and share the germs ;). I took Miss Thinker with me, Mr Cheeky and Littlest Miss too.

We pulled up outside her house at 9.03. She lives right next to a school so I figured if she was not back from school drop off already she wouldn't be far. I waited half an hour in the car, listening to complaining about boredom and a tummy ache. I ignored both as often a 'sore tum tum' is Miss Thinker speak for 'I am bored.' I decided my friend was just going to miss out on my wonderful company and left after 9.30. 

'But I want to stay here mum.' Mr Cheeky whined.

'We can't mate,' I said and drove off.

'My tummy is actually sore you know mum.' Miss Thinker told me as we came up to a round-a-bout and I just Mmmmmed in reply. I pulled into a parking space mentally congratulating myself for actually parking straight and in between both lines ( I some times am what you might call 'parking  challenged') and got out to find a trolley to 'load' the kids into. I was only there to get some rehydration powder for myself, The Man Child and Littlest Miss. 

It was then it happened.

 'I am sick mum!!'

'What? Are you OK?. Nooooo, throw up on the jumper. The jumper!' I said as I ran around the front of the car and opened the passenger side door. By the time I got there Miss Thinker had managed to throw up on the seat, the door and the floor.. the jumper how ever was spotless. 

'Ok. Do you need to throw up again?'

'No, I am absolutely fine now!' Miss Thinker smiled. 'Can I still come in the shops mum?'

'Yes, of course. You cant stay in the car.' I said wiping up what I could with my jumper. 'Just let me get the trolley.' and I walked off to find one. 

THANK YOU TROLLEY BOYS FOR DOING YOUR JOB PROPERLY AND ACTUALLY PUTTING THE TROLLEY"S BACK IN THE STORE... BUT would it really be so bad if you 'missed' one or two for us mums that do not like to leave our kids in the car park to hunt down a trolley??

'Ok,' I said to Mr Cheeky as I opened the car door and unbuckled his belt, 'In you go.'

'Mum. Lexie is disgusting ,hey?'

'No she isn't. She is just sick. Poor Lexie.'

'He said I was a disgusting doodle when you were getting the trolley mum.' 

'Don't be mean to your sister Aidan!'

'Naaw OK mum.'

It took us five minutes to get into the shopping centre thanks to the worlds worst trolley (why do I never learn and check them first?) and by the time we walked into the chemist I just wanted to go home. Any energy that  I had woken up with was quickly diminishing. I stood by the shelf of re-hydration solutions trying to figure which was better for the variety of ages in our household, seeing as in my mind, we were in for a spew bug.

Finally an assistant took pity on me and came to help. She started with her educated spiel but I just was not interested and (rudely, I guess) I interrupted her mid sentence and said 'Sorry, I have 7 kids, three have been sick, as am I. This one here,' pointing to Miss Thinker ' has just vomited so I want the biggest container of hydration solution you have. Ages from 9 months to adults. I can only assume we are in for a vomiting bug and want to be ready.'

'Of course.' she said and walked off to find a big container and checked with the pharmacist as to what ages it was appropriate for. She apologised for the cost of everything and I told her not to worry as money didn't matter when it came to our health.      ( though My Beloved was feeling the opposite way when I told him the price!) 

Whilst all that was happening, Mr Cheeky took it upon himself to be a total shit. Yes I said it! He spent a great deal of the time sitting on Miss Thinkers head saying, 'Oh NO. I  have  fallen  and   can  not  get  up.' Eventually I reefed him out of the trolley and on to my hip where he took great pleasure in trying to get down and the more I said stop it mate. The funnier the 'game' became for him.

When walking out the door of the shopping centre trying to control the worlds worst trolley down a slope, on an angle, behind an elderly man with a walking stick, moving slower than a slug I was just about ready to snap. I ignored the fleeting fantasy of just knocking the man out of the way whilst screaming ' For god sake man, get a chair!'

I packed the kids and bags into the car I sat down behind the wheel and was just about to start the car when some idiot was driving slowly, but most definitely, surely INTO my parked (did I mention how well I had parked it?) car. 

'What the hell do you think you are doing!' I shouted. 'Piss off!' (yes, I was not calm by any means)

The woman looked at me kinda hurt and I just gave her a 'what the hell is wrong with you?' look. She corrected her steering and continued off to scare some other driver, no doubt. As I checked where  I was going before I pulled out of the parking spot to finally drive home I noticed an elderly couple looking at me in disgust. I smiled and waved, turned the radio up and drove towards the safety of home. 

Honestly, what is wrong with people! ;)

I am happy to report I returned home, with out incident at about 11. Ahhhhhh it is GOOD to be home! :D

Turns Out, We Don't Have A Song.

It is impossible to be unaware that couples 'have' a song. Everyone goes on about 'having' a song.

We watched Modern Family last night. In a nutshell the blond chick (don't know the names of any of them as I am not a regular viewer) and her husband ( the dorky looking guy) had an anniversary and instead of the husband being the one to forget such an important event, it was the wife. Eventually after some thinking she remembers the song that was playing when they first kissed and realising the band playing the song was her husband's all time favourite she managed to get a band member to come to their home and serenade them. Of course the husband had never even heard of the band. (Spandau Ballet) and thought they had a different song, the one he had sung at their wedding no less.

It was about at that point I turned to My Beloved who was sitting on the couch next to me and said.

'Errrr. Do we have a song? Coz if we do, I don't know what it is.'

'I have a song.' he joked. 'And we did have one for our wedding dance... but don't ask me what it was.'

( It was Amazed, by Lone Star... But I wanted Into The Mystic by Van Morrison... long story ;)

'Are we the only people who don't have a song do you think?' I asked him.

'Who knows.' ( he was also thinking who cares?)

'The only song that would come close to being our song would be Tip Of My Tongue, you know that Johnny Diesel song.'

'Oh yeah.' He nodded, but didn't seem convinced.

'Well that is only because it came out when we were dating and we both liked it. I mean you bought the CD.'

We both drifted back to the TV and a few minutes later I said.

'Oh I know! We 'have a food.'

'Do we?'

'Yes! Of course we do!'

'OK. What is our food?'

'Chinese! Remember?'

 'Chinese. Yeah the Golden Dragon and your flambé duck thing.'

'No I was thinking of Kenny's Kitchen, near the old railway and Mongolian Lamb!'

'I would have said the steaks and oysters at the Breakfast Creek Hotel, was our food.'

'What? Nooooooo we had Chinese way more!'

The Man Child and Big Miss spent the next 30 minutes listening to us talk about the food we ate at different places pre-children and decided that they had the weirdest parents ever. As Big Miss said,

 'Even I know everyone has a song mum! No one has a FOOD!'

Do you have a song? If so what is it?   We are on the look out for one  ;)

Faker

Yesterday I discovered PicMonkey I had fun making collages and 'messing' around with the editing features like AIRBRUSH and WRINKLE REMOVER!!  I used a picture that showed every wrinkle and crease on my face and set about 'fixing' it.  Not because I particularly cared about the wrinkles and creases but because I could!

 I spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure out how it worked and airbrushed away at my face ( I did not realise at that time that if you zoomed in it would work better) I was impressed. I decided to show My Beloved the 'masterpiece'. 

'So babe,' I said as I carried the laptop towards him 'Check out my wrinkle free face' I beamed as I sat next to him on the couch. 

'You don't have wrinkles darl.' he replied in the way you might placate someone who is very concerned about something they need not be.

'Oh I am not worried about that! I am going to show you what I can do with photos!' I said 'Look at this one!' I showed him the 'before photo'.

The 'Before 'photo was one I had Big Miss take weeks earlier in an attempt to get a new profile picture for my personal Facebook account. I naturally found it impossible to keep a straight face and laughed so hard I was crying. This photo is one where I was trying to get my self back into 'serious' mode.- We never did manage to get a good picture.

'Now look at this one!' A big grin had made it to my face.

I decided to fix the forehead and a bit of my 'old lady' hands as well as darken the 'locks'. I attempted to  'pull' my shirt over my shoulder as well, however that was not successful and I deleted that edit! 

Before he or I could say anything else Miss Thinker popped her head over our shoulders.

'Let me see mum.' She asked

'Look at mummy.' I said pointing to the after shot. She looked closely for a second and then turned to me and said

. 'That's soooooo totally fake! Hey Mum!'

Yep. Called out by a 7 year old. Think I will just stick to fixing the exposure and colours from now on! 

He's A Keeper

Many years ago, when I was much younger and My beloved was as well, my grandma who was living with us and I sat up late at night talking about my 'boyfriend' ( My Beloved of course)  She'd met him twice and liked him.

'He is a keeper.' She said to me. ' He is a good boy and I like him.'

I was reminded of her saying that to me today. As I lay on our couch cuddling Littlest Miss and quietly dying from some bug that has been making its way around the local area.

 He spent the whole day doing what needed to be done, putting dinner in the slow cooker and entertaining Mr Cheeky. When Littlest Miss was awake, he took her too so I could sleep.

All that even though he had a few days away, was tired and had to drive the night shift tonight in the Taxi. It reminded me that whilst there are days or weeks when he drive me insane  ( and I mean INSANE!!!) there are also the  days like today where he really proves AGAIN just how right my nan was. He really is a keeper.

Just don't tell him I said that! ;)

My beloved and Littlest Miss <3

Thrifty Thursday # 1

Thrifty Thursday- if you like things glossy and new you wont appreciate this post. But you can't please every one and I don't try! ;)

Well, it is finally up, my Thrifty Thursday post. I know I have only mentioned it to you once but I have been planning  this for a while! Finally! Yay! The whole purpose of this Thrifty Thursday business is

a) if you know me you know I am a big secondhand shop and recycling yard addict. I love it, I think it may be part of my D.I.Y problem as well. But I love that too! So around this house and in our family everyone gets to marvel or laugh ( usually laugh) at my 'treasures'. I figured you might as well too!

And b) It is my blog and I wanna!

My  ability (or lack of) at using a photo editing program  is that of a primary school kid... actually considering they are all using computers in prep these days I'd say it is even less. So don't judge and I will get better I am sure! As I tend to ramble (yes, it is OK as long as you admit you have a rambling problem!) I will limit it to one or two finds a week. Which should also leave me with plenty of items to show you when I can't get near a second hand shop or the like! ( How horrible would that be?!)

When I had finished decluttering two weeks ago I realised I needed more space and threw out a lot of craft supplies to sure up space in the hall cupboard. It was around that time I decided I needed a filing cabinet or two. But they are expensive new and I couldn't justify the cost when the plastic storage tubs did the same job.

So when I had to meet My Beloved in town last week and I had some time to kill, I did what I always do, and went 'shopping' I didn't find anything that particularly stood out at me in the two second hand stores I like ( one is always good for furnishings and household decorating stuff, the other for really gorgeous one off bits with a bit of 'different' to them!) If you like to 'Thrift shop' you know which store seems to be a better place for the different kind of thing you may be after.

Whilst driving to meet My Beloved at his mothers house I decided to call in the recycle yard and have a 'quick' look. I saw many things! (eeeeeeek) but the filing cabinet really stood out to me. I opened the drawers and was happy to see a drawer full of suspension files. The drawers all worked perfectly and the whole unit was sturdy with a bit of surface rust.

 "OH YEAH" I thought. I could 'do' something to it and store all my paperwork, My Beloved's and most of my craft papers. Freeing up a whole shelf of my hall cupboard.... I was sold. When I was told $5 I happily paid there and then, even though I could not take it with me straight away ( I had to get My Beloved and the 4wd to pick it up...) I knew I should have taken the van that day instead of the sedan... stupid thing! ;p)



My Beloved was less impressed when I explained to him that he would have to get it on the roof of the 4wd. But he managed it and he was rewarded with comments regarding how incredibly strong and handsome he was. Hey! It happens to be true!

The filing cabinet and suspension files cost me a grand total of $5! :D

When we got home it stayed on the roof rack for three days, until I bribed the Man Child and Big Miss and my nephew and youngest brother-in-law to get it off and bring it inside. They did, bless them and I have placed it in my dining/lounge room so I can look at it while I decide where it goes and what I am going to do to it.

I had a planned to buy some metal effect paints and give it a bronze/verdigris look, but now I am not so sure. My Beloved wants to spray it in black kill rust and then go over it in gun metal grey.... ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.  Obviously he is not allowed near it! I like the rusted effect it has but I also want to change the main colour so I have taken a lots of photos so, if need be, I can recreate the look with a different colour. Though that last sentence should say 'so I can attempt to recreate the look!' ;)

My second treasure I will show you is this box of lamps. As is ALWAYS the case my photos are just not good enough and I must get a new camera... and I will! The pink, blue and green lamps are perfect shabby chic kind of colours and strangely the grey and white lamps will work well too (though the grey will MOST definitely be getting a paint job) the matching rough sandpaint effect lamps are spares, I don't particularly have a place for them but one day I am sure I will! Besides it never hurts to have spare lamps in this house.

I have lamps for the littlest four kids. And technically lamps for the bigger two but as they already have lamps I am calling them spares. You can never have too many lamps, in this house at least. With lots of kids there tends to be more lamp breakages! At least in my experience! 

I bought A LOT more but I think this post is long enough! So I shall start next weeks post after I have taken the Man Child to his second night of Navy Cadets! :)

Why don't you tell me what YOU would do to the filing cabinet?? (also taking suggestions on the dressing table next week... there will be better pictures then!)

Next time:

Meant To Be

This morning was a tough one. I managed to stay awake when I opened my eyes. If we had really wanted to, the kids would have caught the bus to school ( The Man Child did and Big Miss did too) I was to blame for the lack of care factor. With Miss Thinker suffering from a chesty cough, which kept me up for a 24 hour straight period 2 days prior I was a tad tired last night and we went to bed very early.

My Beloved had left for Noosa to do his first 'briefing' of the Backpackers he was to take on tour today and I couldn't just fall asleep leaving them unsupervised now could I? (though I did consider 'trusting' The Man Child to 'look' after two of his four sisters whilst I crashed early) but I can not do that, I feel like a neglectful parent. Instead I forced them all (except the Man Child) to bed early. I don't have a problem being a 'mean' parent it seems! ;) I woke up too late to call My Beloved and find out how his night of 'freedom' had been and was a little disappointed as he was driving and I knew he would not answer the phone.

'If you hurry you can make it in time.' I told Little Miss who just had her hair to do. But the whereabouts of the brush eluded us all and Biggest Miss was not there.

' Look, don't stress, I will drive you all.' I told Little Miss, Miss Independent and Miss Thinker.

'But I don't want to be late!' Miss Thinker stressed.

'Darl, unless the bell rings you are not late. Don't stress.'

It seems to her that if she is not at school before or at the same time as the bus arrives then she is very, very, very late. Eventually we found the brush (where it is actually meant to be, which explains why we couldn't find it) and everyone was ready for the drive to school.

'Everyone got their hats?, Bags?,Lunch?, Homework? I said as I started to drive off.

'Yeeeeeeeeees.'

Once at school I spoke quickly with both teachers and decided before I went home I'd stop in to the local store to have a, you guessed it, Ice Coffee. I noticed that there were a lot of white 4wds and it made me think of how My Beloved was doing. He had told me when I rang him the night before that he had a group of 25 this trip and he looking forward to it. I walked into the shop and made my way straight to the fridge I grabbed my beverage of choice and walked to the counter.

'Morning! I said and started to pat myself down as i couldn't remember which pocket I had stuffed some money in before leaving home.

'Have you checked out that lot?' the owner joked nodding to the large group of people in the parking lot.

'No. Why?' I asked

'You might know one of them.' he said 'Go out and see if you do.'

'Oh ok.' I said out of politeness more so than comprehension. Plus I had my Ice Coffee, I could handle anything! ;) There in the middle of a rabble of excited looking tourists was My Beloved. I walked up to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. 'Hey baby!' I said. He jumped back away from me and gave off the impression of some one who had just been victim to unwanted physical contact. I laughed and said 'Good boy!'

'Oh heeeeey Darl!' he said and smiled.

'Hey love, I wont keep you just wanted to give you a kiss. Have fun, drive safe and I'll see you Thursday.' I pinched his bum and walked back to the car. I drove off and waved to him.

It was lucky I didn't bother with the bus this morning. If I had, I would not have gone to the shop and seen My beloved.... or had an Ice Coffee. I am not sure which one I was happier about actually. ;)

And who wouldn't want to give him a kiss on the cheek? 

Father And Son

After our chat on Sunday I informed the Man Child that he could tell his father everything he had told me. He did not want to. I reminded him that had always been the 'mean' parent and his father had always been the more cruisey of the two of us so if he had not been threatened with death or banishment by me the chances were nil his father would react badly.

'I just don't want him thinking badly of me and being let down by me.' he said

'Mate, your father would feel let down if you didn't have a chat with him. I mean we were already feeling like we had failed you some how. This would make your father feel the opposite. I promise.' I told him. After some umming and ahhing he agreed he'd chat with his father today.

I reminded him of his promise when everyone else was doing their homework and he could be assured that no one would interrupt or over hear. I left My Beloved and the Man Child on the front veranda and two hours later they came in. the relief in both their eyes was great to see and for the first time in a week everyone was back to their relaxed comfortable selves.

They even bonded by watching his fathers favourite movie, well one of them.. Mad Max.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. :)


And completely off topic I am actually working on a post before I am even planning on hitting publish. It is my  Thrifty Thursday post. I am determined to actually do it this Thursday. All my posts until that one are done and dusted with out too much of an edit ( but I am sure you have picked up on that by now ) in one 'sitting'. 'Mummies homework' I call it if I happen to start a post when the kids are still awake. But this one will allegedly be 'thought out' lol don't get too excited though! ;)

Night all! :)

Is It Bedtime Yet?

Well it has been almost total anarchy here today. We still have four kids up at 9pm. The youngest two and oldest two. Littlest Miss is much happier now her teething and cold have eased off. So she caught up on all her missed sleep, in the day light hours. She has no intention of going down to sleep just yet. Mr Cheeky has slept most of the afternoon away as well and quite frankly he does not sleep much at the best of times so I am deluded if I think he will be tired before 11.30.

The Man Child gave me even more cause for concern this afternoon, I wont go into it except to say it was quite serious. I played it cool and let him sit and think hoping that he would snap out of the 'thing' he seems to be going through. Half an hour of worry and confusion later and he called me into his room and started to tell me all these things he was starting to do, smoking for one, occasionally  he said, but he thought he must tell me everything. I was very surprised at the smoking confession. Note I said surprised not shocked. There was an even bigger confession and then we had a chat it lasted most of the afternoon and it ended well. The lines of communication are open again, thank goodness. So I am not as worried as I had been.

Little Miss, Miss Thinker and Miss Independent seemed to be running feral all day and it did not end until it was time for dinner. Little Miss managed to fall on her tailbone at one point in the 'feral festivities' as I have dubbed it and has gone to bed with what I suspect is a very bruised tailbone. I told her I would take her to the doctor in the morning to be sure it was just bruising.

I'd just like to add, you know for clarity sake days like these are rare but when they do happen they REALLY happen. lol Thankfully everyone has calmed enough to be classed as 'back to normal' and I am glad because when it rains around here it seems to pour!


My Beloved woke after spending most of the day asleep ( how he managed to is something I will never know) he had a night shift in the taxis again and is wide awake so I think I may just leave the kids in his hands and curl up in bed with a book and a cup of tea and sleep till Littlest Miss needs a feed. After the day I have had I think I deserve it!



Night all!  Oh and does anyone know where I hid the last two Tim Tams???  ;)

What To Do About The Man Child

This post is a little more personal than the usual. But if you are going to Blog about life in any family there are going to be times when you have to touch on things that are not light hearted. To gloss over everything is not my style.  I like to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I have had a bad week. I went shopping on Wednesday and was confronted by the sight of my 17yr old skipping school. I was not shocked, I was so very ,very disappointed. I stood there watching him and his two mates for three minutes, Why didn't I go over and make a scene? Tell him to get his butt back to school? I don't know. I just stood there watching him and felt so terribly sad.

We have been very lucky it has been only the last six months I have noticed his behaviour slip and only a little. I noticed his grades going down further and a general lack of respect. Just a LITTLE bit. But when I stood there looking at him as he actually was, not as I  his mum see him, I saw a kid who was on the edge of going down the right track and drifting towards the wrong track.

A friend told me about the local Navy Cadets. I decided he was going, that was it. Respect, leadership skills, confidence and life skills, not to mention a good resume ( for future job hunting) were just some of the benefits of joining. He needs it before it is too late. My mummy senses think it is not to late, but it IS getting there. Where were my mummy senses before now? I do not know. I figured as we gave him slack to do his 'thing' ( because his past actions had always and I do mean ALWAYS proven him to be responsible and trustworthy) he would not feel the need to 'buck' the system. But obviously I was wrong in that assumption. Until this week I believed I could rely on him to do the right thing. Every time. He had not given me reason to believe otherwise.

Now don't get me wrong. He is not doing anything other than skipping school... yet. But I do not want him going anywhere near the path that so many kids are going down. So something has to be done before it is too late. My Beloved and I are in shock but also blaming ourselves. We missed a sign here or there or everywhere. We realise of course that he has been a good kid and he knows right from wrong and ultimately he is making these decisions but as parents it is your JOB to help your kids when you see them coming up to a fork in the road and you feel somewhere inside that they will take the wrong road.

I worry that it will escalate. I worry he and his friends are bad influences on each other.. I worry because the morning after his first visit to the Navy Cadets he skipped the whole day of school. I worry because he blatantly lied to me about doing so. I worry because that boy is not the boy I know. I worry because for the first time in my life as a parent I am feeling unsure of how to handle a situation. I worry if coming down on him like a ton of bricks is wise. I worry if not doing so is wise. I even worry that my doubting him now is the wrong thing to do. I worry. I worry. I just... worry. But

Some would say you are worrying over nothing. It is just a phase and it is a phase but not one I want to see continue. I was glad to hear from another friend that a similar thing happened with her brother, he was enrolled into the army reserves by his mother and is now doing very well in the Army. I am not thinking of the Navy Cadets as a future for my son in the armed forces, but I am seeing it as beneficial thing for him and it will open many doors for him. Door that seem, for the moment at least, closed to him.

Easy On The Eye

For my regular readers ( it is hard to hold back a laugh when I say that, Hi family members! ;p) you will notice a BIG difference in the way this Blog looks. I hope it is easier on the eye and easier to read. I am not going to promise that I will not change it again, though I should! All the links to the blog archives are  now at the bottom of the page (probably a stupid place to put it ) let me know what you think about it all.

I have been trying for the last two weeks to get a  Thrifty Thursday post happening. But it has been difficult to say the least. I have been trying though! Hopefully next Thursday will be the day, the whole 'the third times the charm' theory.

It is very common for me to come home with treasures I have found at markets,garage sales,second hand stores or recycling yards. It happens once a week I go to town and decided to check out the second hand stores and always find something to bring home, it is kinda like a disorder, but a good one! :)

I tried hard to get it done tonight and just call it Fridays Finds, but alas it was not to be. Littlest Miss is teething, she has her top and bottom two front teeth and is now cutting two more top teeth. She is not a happy girl.

Well it is past midnight and I need to sleep, please let me know what you think of the changes and try to be nice, I have had a shocker of a week and I am feeling 'fragile' ;p


A sneak peak of my 'favourite' treasure from this week.

I did quite well and am looking forward to showing you next week. (fingers AND toes crossed)

Burn Baby Burn!

In keeping with my latest cooking 'trick', I managed to burn a lamb roast last night... in a slow cooker! Don't be suckered into thinking those slow cookers are all they are cracked up to be. Yes it was on the highest setting and yes I did go to bed and forget to turn it down but that is besides the point! 

I woke at 2 this morning to the smell of a beautiful roast cooked to perfection. 'I had better put that on 'keep warm'. I thought to myself. I woke at 5 to the smell of an incredibly well cooked roast. Through the haze that is not quite awake not quite asleep I realised I did not turn the slow cooker down. By 6 there really was not point in turning it down. But I did anyway!

I lifted the lid saw the roast had shrunk by a third the carrots, potatoes and other black 'things' that were at some point vegetables of varying descriptions were shrivelled and did not look appealing at all. I put the lid back and made a cup of tea. ' I'll deal with that shamozzle in a minute I thought and had my tea.

'Morning mum.' The Man Child said to me as I poured my second cup of tea.

'Morning darl.' I said

'Whats that smell? Is that? What is that? he asked

'The roast Lamb. I burnt it.' I said without thinking.

'Oh are you serious?' He asked me and laughed

'Careful,' I said ' You are not in my good books yet!' referring to something that had happened the day before. I'll tell you about that in another post.

By the time everyone had gone to school I had to go into town to meet My Beloved and I ended up spending the day ( well most of it) checking out second hand stores and the recycling yard... I got a couple of awesome things too ( yep, another post).

When we got home My Beloved said 'Oh, what is that smell!'

Oh no I thought, it couldn't have burnt more could it? I waited for the teasing, but it didn't come.  My Beloved had helped himself to a plate of Lamb. 

'Got any mint sauce?' He said. 'This is beautiful!!'

'Yeah,' I said 'I thought you'd like a nice roast after today. It is probably over cooked though.'

'No its nice.' He said and dashed mint sauce all over the plate. 'Really nice.'

With the backyard in full STOP mode (grrrrrrr) I have continued with my de cluttering. I am almost done but I tell you something shall I? I am starting to get over it BIG TIME.

Why oh why do I/we have so many 'things?' I am getting rid of at least a third but it is more likely to be  two thirds of everything. We do not need 2, sometimes even three, of something ( except can openers, I think everyone should have 3 of those!)

I have used so many garbage bags to drop my cast offs to friends and family and the charity bins that I actually feel I alone could be responsible for the death of at least half the polar bear population. 

Everyone seems to be spring cleaning. I read a post from a Blog I love Common Chaos about a 20 Days To Organise & Clean Your Home challenge she found over at The Organised Housewife. I am just annoyed that this challenge was not around last week. I would have loved the daily challenge and to see that others were out there  doing the same as I was. So if you are contemplating a spring clean check it out and see if you can get inspired to start. 

I'd need a water cannon to get me moving today and I think even then I'd set a snail like pace. I just don't CARE today... Is that wrong?

Too Tired To Post...

I still have a lot of our family photos to share with you, but just for now let this gorgeous collage give you an example.

I love collages, especially when they are made of pictures of us! ( 'You're sooooooooo vein' ) hehehehe. I am absolutely STUFFED. I don't think I can keep my eyes open for too much longer and it is not even 7 yet! I hope you enjoy the picture as much as I do. :)     

 Night all! ;) *Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn*