Friday, January 30, 2009

My Op Shop Finds - someone's trash is another person's treasure.....


Well I haven't been to an op shop in so long. I have donated plenty lately lol but haven't actually set foot inside on of the actual shops. This morning I changed that. I braved the heat as I am,,,make that was,,,,in need of a couple of bowls.

Last night Mr14 went to feed the dog some of the dinner leftovers and as Billy the Dog jumped up at him excitedly trying to see what was on the dinner menu, Mr14 accidentally dropped the bowl. Unfortunately it was Mr6's Shrek bowl that he had got a couple of years ago at Easter, so he wasn't too happy about that :( Oh well not much you can do about it when it smashes into numerous pieces.

We desperately needed a couple more as we only had the bare minimum. I have plenty of plastic bowls but I don't really want to be eating out of those continuously,,,well not for dinner at least lol. We are trying really hard to be more frugal and stop wasting things. So I decided that since I don't have a matching dinnerset anyway (mine is a hodgepodge of mine and Hubby's that we just put together when we met and so we have about 3 or 4 dinnersets combined together.....out of all that you would think that we would have enough bowls wouldn't you???? But sadly no, bowls seem to be the things that get dropped alot in this house. So anyway back to my op shop lol,,,,,I found 2 bowls (non matching but perfectly useful anyway) for 25 cents each. I had intended to just get the bowls but on the way out I saw a Dorothy the Dinosaur in really great condition for just $2.50 (she even sings now that I have replaced her batteries!) and a large wooden cutout of Tigger (you know the tiger from Winnie the Pooh) complete with the hanging string on his back for just $3.00. Well I decided that I could list those on Oztion and make, possibly double my money or more. Up until now I have just been selling my decluttered items from around the house and while I haven't made a fortune I have made enough over the last 6 months to pay for quite a few of our Xmas gifts last year. This year I am thinking that any sales from January through to March/April will go towards a holiday (our hopeful holiday at this point) and from then on any sales I make will be divided equally between the mortgage (every little bit helps I say!) and our christmas fund.

Ok I had better get moving and actually get these two things listed. Stay cool everyone that is sweltering at the moment!!!!!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

It's sooooooooooooooooooo hottttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so sick of this heat! Thankfully we have ducted evaporative aircon and ceiling fans but when it is this hot the evap system isn't that great...much better than being outside lol but still not that great. I keep peeking at the 7 day forecast hoping to see a much needed change somewhere on that horizon but alas no it seems to want to be in the 40's or high 30's continuously. I can handle a hot day here and there but when it is continuous I hate it. Of course the kids went back to school this week so they are really struggling and come home from school extra irritable and then we all pay for it lol.

The boys all did really well going back this week,,,,well my boys anyway, we won't know how Hubby's guys went until tomorrow night when we get them back.

My Mr14 has started Year 9 and is finding the homework step up a little tough right now. It is a big jump from what they were getting last year and since he has a bit of trouble learning it is going to be a little tough for him I think, but he has a great attitude and I know that he will do his best at all times.

Mr12 has just started Year 7 and is his usual bah humbug kind of self lol. Nothing really phases him too much and he grumbles about homework but tends to just take it in his stride. He sliced his big toe open when he went to the pools with his Dad on Australia Day and it is quite a nasty cut and today one of the kids at school put his chair down on his foot and caused it to open up and bleed quite heavily again,,,,so I had to go back into the school and take him some clean socks as there was quite a bit of blood on his sock.

Mr8 has just started Year 3 and has Mr12's old teacher. I am just hoping she doesn't expect the same out of him as she got from Mr12. Mr12 has never really struggled with school work but unfortunately Mr8 is very behind in his reading and struggles quite a bit and needs alot of encouragement. His teacher last year was fantastic and really boosted his self esteem as she was a real motherly type of lady and just oozed love and respect. The teacher this year is also an older lady but not quite the motherly type lol. She is alot stricter but lovely at the same time. I think I will just have to keep an eye on how he is going.

Mr6 has just started Year 1 and after the first day putting on the waterworks to a major extent, the last two mornings have been very pleasant. He has a teacher who even I find a little intimidating lol and she is known for her strictness but she gets results. Mr6 struggles a little too with his reading so it will be interesting. Mr6 can be quite silly at times and a little on the immature side so he won't like being told off but I just hope that he behaves himself and doesn't get told off too much. I find with him if he gets told off alot he becomes really sooky and won't want to go back to school. I think she will get results from him if he manages to behave though......will just have to wait and see.

I have so much I want to achieve and I feel once again like I am not getting anywhere. I was thinking last night that my youngest has been at school now for 1.5 years and I still haven't begun painting the house which was my major job I wanted to do once he started school. I am also decluttering the house. This is going well and over the school holidays I removed quite alot of stuff,,,,,,,,,,into the carport lol. Now I have to go through and photograph and list it all on Oztion. I figure since I stay at home I should try to become a little more productive and try to earn a little bit at least. I have boxes and boxes of stuff to list. I did at least make a start yesterday but I am finding it very time consuming and tend to get distracted too easily lol. I guess slow and steady wins the race in the long run though!!!

My poor plants are struggling in this heat. I just went out the front to check on passionfruit vine to find the poor thing totally wilted. It is in the shade now thankfully and gave it a nice big drink so hopefully it will perk back up a little bit. The watermelons that I planted near it are fine though so I am happy about that. My Hubby and I have begun to strive for a more sustainable lifestyle and we aren't doing too badly. My 5 tomato plants never made it into the ground but they are doing great in the pots. We have had quite a nice little haul of tomatoes off of them. We have 2 capsicum plants which have so far given us 5 capsicums. We have an old nectarine tree that has given us stacks of nectarines,,,,,they are only tiny ones but they are beautiful flavoured. Our new nectarine tree that grew from a seed is going great guns. I am hoping it will fruit eventually and we can remove the old nectarine tree that has seen better days and replace it with the new one. We have a peacharine tree that has provided Mr12 about 10 or so of his favourite fruit,,,not bad for a small tree that we only bought last October!! I have seedlings in pots waiting to be planted out but it is just too hot.....we have pumpkin (which is threatening to take over the table that it sits on lol), rockmelons, more watermelons, cherry tomatos, a mulberry tree that has just started to shoot from a cutting I bought, marigolds, more capsicums, cabbages and a couple more passionfruit. I can't wait to turn out yards (front and back) into gardens that will help feed our family and in turn save us money. We bought ourselves a compost bin and are hoping we are doing it right,,,,,it doesn't smell so that is a start lol....a little more research is needed there.

Well I best go and list a few more things on Oztion. I need to get into the habit of doing this more often. I spend too much time reading about everyone else's lives and then don't get time to write about my own lol.