An uplifting song for the weekend.......

 While reading through various blogs I came across a few references to the "West Girls" and "Homesteading dvds".  I searched YouTube and found this beautiful and uplifting song sung by the beautiful girls from the West Family.  It put a smile on my face and it is such a catchy tune that I have played it over and over.  I thought others might enjoy it too.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ3CPlD9YD8



Have a lovely weekend everyone!....."cuz there's green beans in the garden and clothes on the line......"

My boy is 10 and now has 3 new little friends

Monday saw one of my boys have his 10th birthday.  I can't believe it has been ten years since I welcomed this little guy into the world.  He has gone from this.....

to this.....

so darn fast!!!!

Here he is pictured with one of his new little friends,,,,Harry the Rat.  He had two rats a few years ago and when they ran over the Rainbow Bridge he didn't want to get any more.  Well a friend of his at school changed all that when he bought his pet rat Casper into school for sharing day.  So one of his presents was a nice new rat cage and three little munchkins to go in  it.  As well as Harry we also have Patches....

and Freddy.......

They are so awesomely cute!!!  Even I am in love with them.  Unfortunately it is a juggling act since we also have two cats that live inside too.  Lol the cats have to spend time in the bathroom while the 3 musketeers have their cuddle and play times.  But it is so worth the inconveniences to see the smile on the kids faces and listen to their giggles as the rats tickle the backs of their necks as they try and find a nice cosy spot.

This would have to be just another of the joys of motherhood I think.  I certainly wouldn't have bought rats as a pet for us, but now we have them, I can't really imagine life without them.

Busy Busy Busy....

I have been just so flat out the last couple of weeks it is ridiculous.

Between parent teacher meetings at school, sick kids, kids birthdays to organise, school projects to help with, presents to organise aggghhhhhhh I feel like I haven't stopped.

We have now moved from gastro bugs to colds.....great!  Mr8 tends to get quite chesty with colds and ends up throwing up, so for the last two nights he has been sick.  Thankfully only the once each night but man oh man I am just over it all I tell ya lol.

I have also been busy searching out a rat cage for Mr9's birthday in two weeks time.  We had rats back when he was 5 and I thought that he was over the rat thing but one of his mates at school bought his pet rat in for sharing day and the obsession resurfaced.  So for his birthday he is getting a nice new rat cage and two little boy rats.  We took him down to the breeder to meet them last week and they are just sooooo cute!!  I have even decided we will get three (Mr9 doesn't know this bit yet).  I fell in love with a little black and white one and I figured that Mr9 and Mr8 will both want to hold one and then when my stepdaughter is over she will argue that she doesn't have one and all hell will more than likely break loose.  So number 3 will be coming to live with us and then the only thing they can argue about is which one they are holding lol.

Here are our previous little rats,,,Stripes and Peanut

On Monday I spent the day making some little ratty tunnels, and hammocks and pouches.  They turned out pretty good for someone that just made it up as she went along lol.....will see how long they stay in one piece!!!

It is so cold here right now, sitting on about 12 degrees.  This house doesn't retain heat very well at all and we only have a gas heater in the lounge so the rest of the house doesn't really get any warmth.  Needless to say it is rather chilly!!!  I can see lots of coffee on the horizon for today lol, coffee and nice hot soup for lunch I think!!!

I got a few paint samples so that we can start painting in the bathrooms and laundry and I hate them all lol.  Nothing seems to look right.  I have white paint in the bathrooms now, one has blue tiles and the other has grey and it is stupid but none of the colours I have chosen seem to go.  I swear I have never had this much trouble trying to find a nice paint colour before lol.  I have decided I am going to use the paint samples and just mix them in with some white paint just to tone them down.  I think that will do the trick.  I will take some pics once it is done if it turns out reasonable!!!!

Ok off to sweep the floors, they are looking pretty grotty......I won't bother mopping today though since I doubt they will dry for ages!!

Will this crap never end??????????????????????????????????????

I am sooooooooooo over it all right now.

It all began on May 7 when my stepson came over with his sister for their usual access visit every second weekend.  Although this being Mothers Day weekend, it was only going to be for one night then we had to take them back on Saturday at 5pm so that they could spend Mothers Day with their Mum.  So it was for a whole 24 hour block of time, really not worth the two weeks of pure hell that I have endured since!!  I sound mean, I sound angry and yep I guess I am both but right now I just want to yell, scream, cry and kick something, really hard!!

You see, within 3 hours of being in our care, my stepson became ill.  You know the gastro type bug that has the vomiting and diahorrea and yeah well, I don't need to paint pictures, it is just horrid.  Anyway he was pretty sick, we were up and down every hour on the hour all night to him and because he is autistic he tends to react differently than you or I.  He has this charming habit of getting up, throwing up all over the floor and then lying in it,,,,,yep I know too graphic but that is what we were dealing with.  Not only were you cleaning the floor/walls whatever else, you then had to totally strip and shower him.  By the time you got it cleaned it was time to start over just about.  We found out that the step father had had gastro all week.....why did the mother not keep the kids there to stop it spreading you ask?  I have asked the same question many times and come up with nothing other than a few very descriptive words that I won't share here.  Why risk the health of another group of people with this bug when it was only for a 24 hour access period that could have easily been made up during the week or at the following access weekend.


Anyway, I did have a lovely Mothers Day, the one day in the two week block where I have not had to deal with sick people!  Monday Mr8 came down with it really bad, so bad that I ended up at the hospital with him Tuesday night as he became dehydrated as I just couldn't get enough fluids down into him before they came back up again.  He was discharged Wednesday afternoon but was still pretty sick Thursday and Friday as well.

My boys were due to go to their Dad's on Friday and Saturday night but as he was still sick, the other 3 went and Mr8 stayed behind.  Saturday thankfully, he perked right up and so I dropped him off at Dad's at about 4pm.

Hubby and I had been feeling slightly off all week, but it had'nt eventuated to anything.  Well I guess I was silly and allowed myself to relax and WHOOSH Sunday morning I woke to a freight train running through my head (literally it felt).  Mine began differently with a fever and aches and then progressed into a milder stomach bug, still with the vomiting and diahorrea but much less severe.  The boys came back Sunday night only to find that Mr13 had come down with it and he too had it like I did rather than like Mr8 had had it.

So Monday saw Mr13 and I both laid up feeling very ill.  Hubby was running around stocking up on easy meals for me to cook for the rest of the week as he was leaving for a work trip to Melbourne Tuesday morning and wouldn't be back till Friday night (lovely timing!).

Tuesday morning came and I felt like death warmed up.  Yes the vomiting had slowed and thanks to gastro stop the diahorrea had settled but I just wanted to curl into a ball and stay there.

Tuesday night Mr10 said he was feeling off.  Dread ran through me, and he had me up several times during the night feeling like he would be sick, but thankfully nothing eventuated.  Of course I thought I had best keep him home from school to be on the safe side, although within an hour I really began to doubt his illness altogether as he seemed very chirpy, definitely not how I felt!!

Wednesday night came and Mr13 and Mr10 both declared that they would be okay to go to school.  Yippee I thought a day where I can actually relax and not have to cater to anyone for that 6 hour school block......no such luck.  I was woken by Mr15 at 1.30am saying he had just been sick.

So here we are Thursday morning and I have Mr15 at home, he seems relatively ok, just a little off, and Mr13 who declared he just didn't have the energy and still felt blah.  Well I couldn't really argue as that is exactly how I am feeling as well.

I am so sick of being sick and being surrounded by sick people.  I want this darn bug out of my house and out of my life.  But I know what will happen.  Mr10 will come down with it for real in the next day or two.  Then hubby will come back tomorrow night and one of two things will happen.  He will either get sick on Saturday once he relaxes into the weekend and then be a "typical sick male" for me for the next week or he will hang out for the weekend (his kids will be back again) and get sick on Monday/Tuesday and I will have him home all next week.

Geez I don't eve know if all this actually makes sense lol, I am so tired and run down.  Why has this bug taken so darn long to pass from one to another????????????????

AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,(That is the scream that I am dying to let out right now.  I would really like to act like a spoilt little brat and throw a massive tantrum (you know the full on kicking and screaming toddler type lol) but for the sake of the kids I won't.

Here's to brighter days ahead...........please!

Dehydration Gastro and Severe Sleep Deprivation

What an absolutely horrible 48 hours I have just had.  My poor baby, Mr8 came down with the most horrific gastro type bug on Monday night which saw him and I up every 20 minutes to half hour throughout Monday night.  The poor little kid was so so sick!!  Not to be too graphic, but lets just say it both ends of his body joined the gastro party at the same time, every time.  He couldn't keep anything down.  Luckily he was eager to drink but all day we battled trying to come to some sort of balance between his intake and his body's output.  Tuesday night I called a locum out to see him and he said yes he was dehydrated and if, after giving him a table to help with nausea, it didn't make a difference within the hour, he was to go to hospital.  Sadly, after struggling to swallow the tablet, it revisited less than 2 minutes later.  Needless to say at 10pm on Tuesday night he and I were making our way to hospital.


  We arrived at the hospital where the triage nurse got him a bed to lie on and also gave him an iceblock and a glass of hydralyte.  He hadn't much enjoyed the hydralyte that I had been trying to force down his throat that day but he humoured her and drank a little at least.   He loved the iceblock so that was nice to see at least.  He lay down and had a little sleep as he was pretty tired from the previous night and hadn't had any sleep that day.  Twenty minutes later he sat up to talk to me and power chucked what seemed like a gallon of liquid, unbelievable!!!

Finally, at 11.30pm we were ushered into the Accident & Emergency section.  They took his obs again and said "a doctor will see you shortly"........4am in the morning a doctor finally came to see him.  Thankfully he had fallen asleep at about 12.30, so had at least got some much needed sleep and most of all, he hadn't chucked in over 4 hours.  They decided that he would need to be placed on a drip and this was finally hooked up in his right arm at about 5.30am.  Half an hour later they decided that he should be admitted, but they had no beds available so he would need to be taken by ambulance to the Womens and Childrens Hospital in the city.  This would be done ASAP but they wanted him to have the second bag of his drip first and therefore we should have another canula inserted into the other arm, a larger one, so that it would go faster.  My brave little boy, barely wimpered for the first one, and was pretty much asleep for the second, until the needle hit the skin, when he received a very rude awakening.  In went the second canula and the second drip started.  I was advised to rush my car which was still parked in the carpark back home and get hubby to bring me back so that I could accompany him in the ambulance.  This I did, only to discover I didn't need to rush so much after all, it was 45 after I returned that the ambulance finally arrived.

We got into the Womens and Childrens Hospital by 9am and started the whole process of describing what was wrong with him all over again.  They unplugged the third bag of fluid from his IV declaring that he had had enough, and he would just be given 80mls of hydralite every 20 minutes to drink and he managed to keep it down he could go home........we didn't even need a bed in a ward!!!!!  Why the first hospital couldn't have done the same thing I don't know!!!!  Needless to say my little soldier managed to keep it down and we were discharged at 12.30pm.  The whole thing made me so angry as that was a total waste of an ambulance trip.  Luckily we are covered but thats not the point!!!

I am over emotional, at the moment due sleep deprivation.  After enduring Monday nights constant interruptions with my Baby I got no sleep whatsoever last night as I simply cannot sleep sitting in a chair.  My eyes are hanging out of my head and I cannot wait until bed time tonight.  I have never looked forward to going to bed so much in my life lol!!!!

The best part of all is that my little boy is returning slowly.  The little sparkle is coming back into his eyes and his voice has lost the dull whiny sound, replaced by his bright bubbliness.

Keep your fingers crossed that he continues to improve for me!!!......and that no one else succumbs to that horrible bug!!!

Thinking and Pondering Life instead of blogging....

That's what I have been doing lol.

I have been doing plenty of blog reading, just no writing. Life has just been plodding along and I seem to be racing around at a million miles an hour but not achieving much.......do you know what I mean???

Last week Mr8 had swimming with his school and so I volunteered to help with the walk to the pool and the change room chaos that junior primary school kids create when they have their swimming lessons.....needless to say lol, it was a very long week.

This weekend was our weekend with all the kids and we had planned to go and visit my mum in the nursing home on the Saturday as my stepkids were only with us for the Saturday due to Mother's Day on Sunday. So we thought, well cool, we will go and see my mum with all the kids, she would like that. But that wasn't to be, Mr9 with Autism came down with a vomiting bug on Friday night and we spent all day Saturday cleaning up behind him. He has this horrible habit of when he throws up (which naturally is never in the toilet) to then proceed to lie down right next to it and sadly, often in it.......it was a very challenging day!!! I was so happy to send him back home on Saturday night much to his mother's horror. But I was so mad, when she then pointed the finger at our house for passing the bug on to him when as we found out from my step daughter, they had had a gastro bug in their house that week!! None of my kids have been sick!!! I really don't know how or why she does things like that. The child got picked up at 5.30pm Friday night and was sick at 9pm, seriously, how fast does she think bugs travel??? I was angry because she didn't even mention that her partner had been sick with the same type of bug since Monday!! Does she seriously think that her daughter wouldn't tell us (although having said that I suspect that she had been told not to tell us!). Grrrrr........

Anyway yesterday, Mother's Day was lovely. I got spoilt and although we ran out of time to actually go out and enjoy the Autumn weather like I would have liked to do, it was a lovely day. Due to early morning soccer game (which my Hubby took my son to) I got to stay in bed till 10am reading my new book that my Hubby got me for Mothers Day,,,,,Multiple Bles8ings (the book by Kate Gosselin from Jon and Kate Plus 8). I have been wanting that book for ages and my darling Hubby managed to get me one from America. I am half way through it already and I love it.

Hubby got home from soccer and then made pancakes for brunch. Yummo, he tried out a new recipe which had berries and ricotta cheese in them and they were quite nice!!

We then went up to visit my mum but sadly she was asleep and she is very hard to wake up so I let her sleep and had to promise the boys we would come up again in a couple of weeks.

I went up to see my mum today and I have come away feeling very depressed. She has dementia and I can see her slipping away a little more each week. I really feel (and I don't really know if it is possible but I believe it is) that putting her into the nursing home last year is what has pushed the dementia further along. Early last year she was only just beginning to get forgetful etc but within weeks of putting her into the nursing home, she slipped into a world of imagination. Now it is very hard to hold a conversation with her. I prattle on about what the kids have been doing etc and she does remember us all, but her sense of reality is gone. I asked her if she had seen the plant that we got her for Mother's Day and she had no idea what I was talking about. She kept going on about flowers my brother had sent her that were sitting on the mantel piece (she doesn't have a mantel piece) and she didn't want me to take her to see the plant and card we got her. Every time I leave her I have to get her to stay put, she keeps saying "I'll just get my bag and I'll be ready", I tell her no she has to stay there, morning tea will be coming soon......its just so hard and so so sad. I really don't want to get old, really I don't. I sincerely hope when I am 80 that I will still have all my faculties about me. Mum is almost totally blind and diabetic which doesn't help matters any.

Well this has turned into a depressing post hasn't it lol.

My real reason for posting today was to let everyone know that I will be starting up a new blog. I have decided that this will be my blog about our day to day lives (aka my ranting and raving space lol) and I will start a new blog which will feature my recipes and any craftwork I do (am hoping to get alot of crafting done soon!!!). It may take a while to get going but I hope for it to turn into something that people can go to for ideas and inspiration.

Hubby has started a new job (within the same company) and it will occupy a lot more of his headspace and most likely time, so I need to find something for myself to do so I don't go mad lol. I decided it may well be time to start trying out some different crafts that I never had time for before.

I hope everyone had a lovely day for Mother's Day and got well and truly spoilt by their children!!

4 Minute Cupcakes.........Kid and Adult Approved Recipe!!

Yesterday I decided to make some cupcakes. Rather than reaching for the packet mix that sat lurking in my pantry drawer I decided to try out one of my many recipes that I mentioned yesterday.

This recipe is definitely a "keeper" and will be used from now on in this house when the call for cupcakes arises.

So easy!!

4 MINUTE CUPCAKES

Ingredients:
2 Cups SR Flour
1 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Milk
125g Butter
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method:
Put all ingredients into mixing bowl and beat on high with electric mixer for 4 minutes.
If too thick add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, beating continuously.
Put into patty pans (lined or greased) and bake in a moderately hot oven for approximately 15 minutes.

Variations:
Replace the vanilla extract with other flavours – lemon, strawberry, coffee, orange, apricot etc
Chocolate cakes – add 3 tablespoons cocoa with the flour

Yesterday I just made vanilla ones but I am going to try strawberry ones next time I make them.

I iced them and they are all just about gone,,,,I have hidden two aside for Hubby and I to have with a coffee later this afternoon otherwise we may well miss out lol.

Busy times - School holidays are upon us again.....

I have been missing in action yet again. This time I have school holidays to blame lol.

Last week it was just my boys and I but this week sees the step kids with us and also extra friends sleeping over.

Sunday night and yesterday I had 8 kids here, today I have 6. Tomorrow I will have 7 and Thursday 7 then back to 6 on Friday and yayyyyyyy, 0 for Saturday and most of Sunday. Lol I am longing for that at the moment!!!! We have to go to my nephews wedding on Saturday so my ex is having my kids and Hubby's guys go back to their mum on Friday night.

Last week was my youngest baby's 8th birthday....where on earth has that time gone??? (Photos to follow.....

I long for little people. I am so proud of the people my kids are turning into but oh how I long for the little baby giggles and the trials and tribulations of having toddlers in the house. I actually miss Barney the purple Dinosaur and the Wiggles and Hi-5 lol. I do still get snippets of them as Mr9 with autism watches dvds over and over the only problem being he constantly rewinds so you never get to see a whole song or segment and he constantly changes the dvds.

Yesterday the kids were all occupied playing various games and I have been laid up with a bad cold so I felt like doing nothing so I spent most of the day at the computer going through all my recipes.

I have had a file sitting on the computer for the last 9 years which I have been adding recipes to when I find ones that sound yummy. I still have my mum's recipe collection to go through and scan the ones that I want from that, but finally I have sorted my recipes that are on here into Savoury and Sweet. From that I discovered I have 709 savoury recipes and 815 sweet recipes, all waiting to be tried out by me!!! I could write books with that amount of recipes lol.

My plan is to start at the top and slowly work my way through. I still haven't decided what to do with the double, triple etc ups that I have accrued along the way. I think I counted 8 different versions of Apricot Chicken and about 9 recipes for Anzac Biscuits lol. I'm not sure whether to try each of them or just find the most frugal one and stick with that, decisions decisions.

If they are successful recipes I will post them on my blog to share. I am pretty slack at taking photos of my creations and in the past I have tried recipes and forgotten to photograph the results so never bother to post them. From now on I will aim to improve. I don't think I will be doing the step by step pictures but I will definitely do the end results!!!

BLOG THIS CHALLENGE 38 - HOW I LEARNED.....Patience, Tolerance and Empathy for Others

This is a photo of my firstborn bub, Joshua, my precious little one who was too sweet for this world......



You see, Josh was born with a condition called "Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome". It is basically where the left side of the heart doesn't form properly. This condition wasn't discovered until he was 4 days old. It was never noticed on any of the 3 ultrasounds that I had when pregnant, twice the sonographers made comment that he had such a nice strong heart beat and looked so healthy....little did they know!

When Josh was born his oxygen levels were low and they put him in an incubator saying that he would come right within the next 24 hours. Well he didn't and on Day 2 they began to look for causes. They couldn't find any reason and just kept saying he would be okay. It wasn't until Day 4 when the head Paediatrician was listening to his heartbeat with his stethoscope that he heard a heart murmur, none of the others had picked it up because Josh used to scream every time they had checked his heart and so it had been missed. This doctor just heard it faintly in between the cries. On this day he got sent to the Children's Hospital for an Echocardiogram, it was there they discovered the terrible truth for his bad oxygen levels.

We were given the news that basically we could take him home to die. At the time the heart operations they do now weren't very successful at all in this country (even now way too many little lives are lost to this condition) and his only hope would have been a heart transplant which they said we had basically no chance of getting. We got told to treasure every moment and let nature take its course.

I wanted to scream and throw things around the room when they told me...how could this happen, had I been that bad during my life to deserve this??

Josh lived for 10 days. Those are 10 days that I will never forget. The first 4 were filled with wonder and hopes and dreams for our little man we had just created, the last 6 were filled with clutching at every moment, every glance he would give us, every little windy smile, knowing that we would never get to see a real smile on his beautiful face.

On day 9 we realised that his breathing had become gaspy and we went back to the hospital, already knowing what they were going to say. He had gone into heart failure and now it was just a matter of time.

He managed to fight on for another 24 hours for us, our brave little fighter. But while we were in the special room at the hospital where we could stay together as a family waiting for the inevitable, he gave us this little look, it made his Dad and I laugh and within the next couple of minutes he began to really gasp and started to turn a strange colour. We hit the emergency button and one of the nurses ran in and just said to me "Hold him, just hold him honey". Our dear sweet little guy passed away in my arms, gone from this world but remaining forever in my heart.

His short life taught me to never take anything for granted. To be patient with others as you never know how much your smile or encouragement may mean to them. I look at the world differently now. I went on to have 4 more healthy boys, sadly my marriage to their father didn't last but I have remarried a wonderful man who himself has a stepson, a daughter and a son of his own.

I value every minute that I spend with my family and miss them so much when they aren't around. I think that is why I struggle when my husband goes away for work, I desperately hate goodbyes.

My Dad died when I was 17, I thought that was difficult enough to come through but losing your child brought a whole new meaning to the word devastation.

As you go through your life, never forget how fragile life can be. What we have today, may not be there tomorrow. Treasure every moment. I know reading my blog sometimes,it may sound like I don't, but my blog is my venting area where my frustrations come out. I certainly don't love my family any less. Every single moment spent with them is worthwhile, be they good or bad moments, its all an adventure in the game of life!!

Hug your family tight and never let the sun set on an argument!!!

Feeling down and lost.........Counting down the hours till my Best Friend Returns

I hate it when Hubby goes away to work,,,,HATE, HATE HATE HATE IT!!!!!

I feel so empty and lonely. We don't have close family or friends and I guess that adds to the emptiness I feel when he is away. He was in Melbourne last Thursday and Friday and then return Friday night at 9.45 only to have to be dropped back to the airport at 7.30am this morning. He won't be back till around 5pm Friday.

The days just stretches into oblivion, what do you do when your best friend, confidante, person you would give your life for isn't within reach of you?? I feel pathetic feeling like this, I'm not alone I have four boys here for the week that I need to nuture, feed, help with homework, run to karate, soccer etc etc but that just doesn't feel enough. I feel like I can't even be the mother I want to be without my Hubby here with me.

I feel like I am being ridiculous, geez I went through a divorce for heavens sake, I have been a single mother of four young boys and I survived...in fact I thrived during that time!! Now here I am five years later having been married for a little over two years and I feel like I can't function on my own,,,,what is wrong with me?????????????????

Believe it or not I am even counting down the hours......99 hours to go approx....I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.........................

Challenge 36: Take us through your week - Blog This Challenge

Do you have a day of the week that is your favourite or you dread? Take us through the day or your week- what happens, what makes it pleasant/challenging - Do a mini-diary of your day - let your readers know what your life is REALLY like. Take photos if you wish...

Well a day or even a week in my life isn't overly exciting, not on average at least lol. Dull and mundane spring to mind to me a lot lately.

This Friday which has just gone saw my day turn into a very hectic type of one.

Last Friday went a little like this:

6.15am - Alarm goes off and I slam the poor alarm clock for being so rude, this giving us 9 more minutes of shut eye.

6.24am - Hubby's turn to hit the alarm clock, "just shut up" he grunts.

So on it went with neither of us wanting to face the day lol.

7am rolled around and we finally gave in to the fact that we had to surface and get children moving.

Hubby walked around flicking on lights to wake up four boys who didn't want to get up either (why is it on weekends kids are up and at it at sunrise but on weekdays they like to sleep in????)

I get up and pack lunch boxes while Hubby gets dressed and then he arrives in time to help the kids with their breakfast while I go and get dressed.

The kids get their gear organised for school and do their teeth etc then they have free time till 8.15 when we leave. Hubby and I have a coffee and toast together.

8.15am - Hubby leaves to go to work and I leave to take the boys to school, I drop off two to high school and then the younger two to primary school. I walk them in and sit with them chatting while waiting for the bell to go. I then walk them up to their classes and say my goodbyes.

Back at home I finish off the breakfast dishes and hang out the washing. I vacuum the loungeroom and quickly sweep the floors and mop the family room and bathrooms.

I then head in to Hubby's work to help him with some typing that he needed to get done (since I can type, it gets done much faster lol). I spent the day there till 2.40pm when I left to get the kids from school.

Mr13 was heading off to his friends house as it was their turn to do the soccer practice run tonight. So I took the other 3 home and the eldest quickly got changed ready for work (he works part time at KFC). He starts at 4pm so we have just enough time to walk in the door unpack lunchboxes and I normally throw the kids recess back in to the lunchboxes and stack them in the cupboard for the following day. Mr15 by this time had changed so I get everyone back into the car and take him to work. I then drove around to Mr13's friend's house to drop off his soccer boots, socks and shin pads for training.

I arrive back home put on some dough to bake to make cheese and bacon scrolls and jam scrolls for kids lunch boxes. I decided I would quickly whip up some cupcakes as well so mixed up a batch of chocolate and a batch of vanilla and got them cooking.

Hubby called me to say he was running late and so would go and get his two kids from after school care instead of coming home for his traditional coffee before he would normally go and get them. We then realised that we hadn't bought any pull ups for his Mr9 with autism so he had to detour to grab a couple of bags of those.

5.30pm - Hubby arrives back with his son and daughter and I quickly ran around the house realising that I hadn't childproofed yet. (When you have an autistic child in the house you have to lock up valuables and make bathrooms etc off limits!!)

6pm - I put the simple dinner of pies and chips on, thinking that would work in well as Mr15 was due to finish at 6pm.

The dough by this time was also ready so I quickly rolled it out and made two trays of cheese and bacon scrolls and put the jam scrolls into a baking tray and set them aside to rise for an hour or two. By this time it was now after 6.30pm and I still hadn't had my text message from Mr15 stating that he was ready to be picked up....
Time ticked by and it was soon 7.15 and still no word from him. We dished up the other kids dinner as it was soon going to spoil if we didn't. I jumped in the car and went for a drive over to Mr15's work as I was starting to get a little worried. The KFC he works at is in a shopping mall and I couldn't see him outside so I went for a wander into the almost desserted mall. The only shops open were Coles and Woolies. KFC did have one or two people out the back so I decided that he is probably still there for some reason that I guess I would hear about.

I wandered back towards the car and came across my son walking with a trolley full of rubbish shortly in front of me. At that moment my Hubby was calling me and told me "He's finished", I laughed and said yep I can see that.

He dumped his rubbish and joined me in the car saying that the place had been a total pigsty and it just took him a long time to clean up....glad we didn't have plans for that night!!

I took him home and he quickly got changed and we had dinner with him.

I then washed his uniform and put the jam scrolls in to cook. By this time the cheese and bacon scrolls had cooled and I wrapped them up individually ready for school lunches.

The jam scrolls finished cooking and I made the icing and poured it on them while they were fresh out of the oven. They smelled divine!! They cooled quickly so I wrapped them as well and put the whole lot into the freezer.

8.45pm Mr13 arrives home from soccer and he quickly showers and then grabs a bite to eat. He was going to a friends house for a sleep over. So he throws some things together and I jump in the car yet again and take him over there. By this time it is almost 9.30pm and I am feeling pretty exhausted.

We put the younger kids to bed, all grumbling because we didn't watch a movie with them. We soothed them with promises of a movie night for the following night.

MrAutism had gone to bed at about 8.30pm but had decided he would lie there screaming every minute or so. His screaming went on until 11pm when he finally ran out of steam.

We watched a bit of TV with Mr15 and then declared that we were going to bed,,,by this time it was midnight.

We fell to sleep very quick but it was short lived as MrAutism woke again at 1pm and had decided that it was time to get up for the day. We basically were then up and down to him for the rest of the night as he didn't really go back to sleep until 5.45am. We fell back to sleep only for me to have to get up at 7am as Mr15 had to start work again at 8am........and there you have it,,,,,,this Friday basically set the scene for the rest of the weekend.

It is now Tuesday lol and I still haven't recovered!!!!

Stealing from Charities...how low can some people go????

While we were out on the weekend we drove past some charity op shops and saw to my horror two cars parked there, the people loading them up with bags of donated goods that had been left for the op shop. They were even ripping open some bags to see what was inside and taking what they liked.

Now I like most people, realise that this happens, I'm not quite that naive lol to think it doesn't, but to actually see them in action I was disgusted. They had station wagons and the backs were full of bags. They were just getting ready to leave as we drove past them, their stash complete.

How can people do that???? Charity shops are there for a reason and people donate to them in good faith that they are doing the right thing.

I made a promise to myself when I saw this happening that I would only be donating directly into the stores from now on. I won't even place things in the bins, as it wouldn't surprise me if they had been reaching in there too.

I sell my unwanted goods online like many people do, but now it makes me wonder when I am buying second hand goods, where they actually come from.....particularly when people have a lot of varying sizes etc listed. By buying second hand, even from garage sales, are we just aiding and abetting these criminals????

I really don't know why I am so shocked, but I think it was to see them there doing it in broad daylight in a very public spot that got to me. Some people have a real nerve!!!

Quick and Simple Dessert the whole family likes - Simply Amazing!!!

Now you think in a family my size that dessert at least would be something that you could pretty much find everyone agreeing to, but nope not in this house. I have one son who hates chocolate (he obviously didn't inherit my genes....or his father's for that matter lol, must have been some genetic thing that skips generations!!). My stepdaughter detests anything that has jam in it and she also hates sultanas and any type of dried fruit along with Mr "I hate Chocolate". So when it comes to deserts in this house we pretty much stick to icecream, jelly, milkshakes, or spiders and they are all happy with that.

At Christmas I decided I would make a Christmas Log and I was absoluttely astounded after I had bribed all the kids to just try a little bit, that they actually all loved it. So every so often this will be a dessert that I will make. Normally the Christmas Logs are made wtih chocolate biscuits so I changed it to the Butternut Snaps (I think that is what they are called!) and voila we have a dessert that everyone loved!

For those of you who don't know how to make it, here is a "recipe" of sorts, it is so quick and easy and no baking, particularly fantastic for those hot summer days.

CHRISTMAS/ANYTIME WREATH

You will need:

2 packets of Butternut Biscuits, or you can use the Chocolate Ripples (I also think it would taste pretty good with Gingernuts lol but that would depend on the kids I guess)

600ml thickened cream

Dash of vanilla essence

Icing sugar to taste

Lollies to decorate



Simply beat the cream until it is nice and thick and then fold in a dash of vanilla essense and a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar
(You can make this as sweet as you like I add a tablespoon of icing sugar and then have a little taste and add just a little more until I am happy with it)

Then it is simply a matter of sandwiching the biscuits together using the cream to form either a circle for a wreath or you could make some log shapes.

Once you are done, just spread the remaining cream over the outside and decorate with your marshmallows or lollies of choice. For the Christmas wreath I decorated it with glace cherries and spearmint leaf lollies to make it look festive.

Allow to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours and you are done!

ENJOY!!!

Decluttering the linen cupboard..........oh boy oh boy!!!!

Yesterday afternoon when the kids got home from school, I did my usual restocking of the lunchboxes for their recess and wrapped their mini lamingtons up for their special treat for their lunchbox.

Then I really felt that I should be tackling my linen cupboard which I have been putting off for the last week. So off I went. I sat on the floor and worked my way up shelf by shelf. I really should have taken a "before" photo but I totally forgot. You would have been horrified I tell you lol. Due to the sheer volume of things in there and with kids and of course Hubby rifling through there looking for towels and sheets etc, it had become a horror cupboard. I basically hadn't gotten rid of anything since my Hubby and I got together over 4 years ago. So it was more or less two houses worth of sheets and towels squeezed into one cupboard. Now due to having 3 bedwetters in the house, I do go through a few more sheets than most, but sheesh, I had enough sheets to just about cater for a whole class at school lol.

Anyway after about an hour, I had gone through the whole cupboard......don't know why I kept putting it off, it really didn't take that long!!!

Here is my cupboard now it is tidy.....yes I know it still has alot of sheets and towels but don't forget we do have 9 people living here, plus the friends that come and sleep over etc.....

This photo is the bottom three shelves......we have beach towels and "grown up towels" (simply because half of them are white and kids and white towels just don't go.......and the answer is no I certainly did not buy those lol, they were a gift from someone that really should have known better but oh well :-) ), then we have Hubby and my sheets and pillowcases and another couple of our towels, then on the top shelf of this picture we have pillow cases and the dog towels for bathing the dogs.


This photo shows the top two shelves with hand towels, face washers, bath mats and the kids towels, and on top shelf is the kids sheets, fitted and flat and a mattress protector. It still looks cluttered but believe me it is a huge improvement to what it was.....now it is just a matter of getting everyone to keep it looking like that lol.

Ok and here is what came out of there and is staying out of there. Unfortunately I didn't have the joy of either sending some of it to an Op Shop or throwing them out. We will be painting the house this year so I kept all the old sheets to use as splatter cloths and all the towels have been ripped up for use as rags/cleaning cloths. Unfortunately I had to find a new home, so they have ended up squeezed in another cupboard for the moment, but it is my rule for these things that they will be recycled after they have been used for painting, they will not be remaining in the house lol!!! Here is a photo of the pile of stuff that came out of that more innocent little cupboard, you can just imagine what it looked like lol!!!


Today I may get around to doing the stuff that is lurking on top of the linen cupboard, there is a huge duffle bag filled with, quilt covers and I think possibly more towels.......I must stay strong and ruthless lol and dispose of the linen....I truly do think it has been breeding!!!!

Op Shop and Market Finds of the weekend

This weekend we finally got around to taking the large bag of stuff that I have had sitting in the alcove for a couple of months, to the op shop. It felt good to get rid of such a huge bag of our unwanted gear.

Sadly lol, we made the mistake of actually having a look around the shop while there.....big mistake!!! I think over the course of the weekend we may have actually bought home just about as much as we just got rid of. But of course there is an upside.....isn't there always??? lol,,,,,it was stuff that we wanted to make our house into a home. Everything, well just about everything, was stuff that is to be used to decorate our home.

These ones were found at our first op shop, the one where we donated our bag of stuff. Here I must admit we also got a stack of soft toys which are for Mr9 with autism. He destroys things at a great rate of knots so op shop toys are great as they are cheap and you don't feel the strain on your pocket. We keep some op shop finds in the cupboard for those inevitable times when he has destroyed just about everything else. I usually buy the ones that are in really great condition, normally ranging in price between 50 cents and about $3.00. I bring them home and wash them and then if he chews it to death, I don't see the dollar signs flashing before my eyes and feel the devastation of a toy lasting just an hour or so in his grasp. Don't get me wrong lol, he does get the good toys for his birthday and Christmas and normally they are pretty short lived, but what can you do????? Anyway, I got a little off track there didn't I. As you can see I found a pair of brand new Nikes, a little wooden kitchen ornament which will look great in our country style kitchen and two little copper items which hubby has decided he would love to collect more of to also decorate the kitchen.

The cost of this loot:
Brand New Nike Shoes for my son: $3.50
Wooden Kitchen ornament: $2.25
Copper items: $4.50

Grand total: $10.25

I was impressed with that!

Next while we were out we decided to just check out one more op shop lol.....(I think my hubby became a little hooked,,,,,he would have spent a lot more if I hadn't have reigned him in!!)

The above finds were a toilet roll holder,,a nice sturdy one which has little shells painted on it and a litte piggy (Hubby insisted as I love pigs)

Grand total of this haul:

Toilet roll holder $4.00
Pig $2.00
Grand Total - $6.00

Then to top the weekend off, yesterday we went to the markets. I came across this stall right at the end of the day which had a gravy boat. I have been using my old plastic jug for gravy and I have always wanted a little gravy boat. Well I spotted one, but naturally the man selling it refused to separate his "lot" and was asking $15 for all 12 items. I hummed and hahhed for a while but then decided I did like the pattern and it would fit in with my country kitchen theme, and the colour actually matches my cupboards anyway, so we bought it. I got it home and washed it up and have now found uses for everything.......



For the $15 I got:
2 x italian glass bottles which I will be filling up with chillies and oil and making little decorations for the window ledge;
Huge salt and pepper shakers which will be used for adding salt and pepper when cooking;
A butter dish which I have upturned and it sits on my window ledge holding my hand cream and aloe vera gel and hand sanitiser;
My gravy boat!!!
A letter rack;
A serviette holder for the table
A utensil holder
A lolly jar
A compost pot (this replaces a very revolting looking bucket we currently use!!)
and finally a teapot which after much consideration, I will be using as a planter which will hold a nice fern or something to sit on my kitchen bench.

As you can see in the photos we have had our kitchen remodelled and all that is left to do is the tiling. We have been trying to decide on what tiles we want and I think we have finally made up our mind,,,,,now we just have to jump in and do it lol.

So all our finds on the weekend have been justified as legitamate purchases made to better our home. I can't wait to continue my decluttering now so that it can all come together!!!!

Laundry half done.....decluttering is cleansing to the mind!!

I kept standing at the laundry door just gazing at it. I couldn't bring myself to start. The linen cupboard was just too much to deal with, so what does any girl do when faced with a linen cupboard that may well erupt at any moment????...........she starts at the other end of the laundry lol, thats what!!!! Here are my before and after....I couldn't believe how much stuff I got rid of, not that the photos make it look that much but the garbage bag and the amount that was in there that actually needed to be somewhere else was amazing!

This is my storage cupboard for lack of a better word,,,,it has only recently moved into the laundry as although I didn't really need the cupboard as such, it does make a great spot for the dog and cat food supplies and just general stockpiling. So for the moment until I get the rest of the house decluttered, it will stay. My long term goal is for it to live in the shed though, so we shall see how we go with that!

Before decluttering:


After decluttering: - yes that washing you see is clean and just about to be put away and the sheet that is sitting on the cupboard is used as a birdcage cover at night for my son's little cockatiel

Inside the storage cupboard - BEFORE : I had forgotten I even had biscuits sitting in there lol, the kids feed the animals, so I just give the animal food straight to the kids to put in the cupboard after I buy it so I hadn't even looked in here for about 2 months!

Inside the storage cupboard AFTER:
(looks like I can go shopping again lol....just kidding!) The bottom shelf still looks a little messy because of that extra long roll of alfoil. At least I will use it up now because it just looks messy and is ruining my work!!!

Inside my cupboard which hangs on my laundry wall....aka the cleaning cupboard, this one wasn't pleasant! BEFORE:
AFTER:
I am getting rid of all my chemical cleaners, so I now have them sitting in the container to use up what is left of them, so this container will slowly empty out. I am using more of the TriNature stuff (top left) and also just good old bicarb and vinegar. It still looks a little chaotic but at least now I can actually see what is in there.

My challenge for next week is the darn linen cupboard. I just have to do it. I know we have lots of beds in this house but I swear some of the single bed sheets in there haven't seen the light of day in the last 4 years lol. I don't really think I need that many. It is just part of the joy of having a second marriage I guess, you accumulate doubles of everything!!

The end of yet another weekend......

I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by. The kids are in their 4th week of school already!!!

This weekend went so fast it was unbelievable. It was our weekend with all the kids that went slightly off kilter as my stepson Mr9 with autism didn't come, only his sister. Mr9 had been hit in the mouth by a flying remote control, thrown by his almost 4 year old step brother apparently and ended up with stitches in his lip and was put on a course of antibiotics. His mother decided that she should keep him there to keep an eye on him (she thinks we are just hopeless obviously even though my Hubby was basically sole carer of the child since birth up until his mother worked out that she could screw us for more money if she actually had him with her!!!!....I won't even start on that story grrrrrr). We have no idea how he is going as she doesn't bother to let us know anything unless its an emergency. We can only imagine what he would be like though as he is constantly picking at his lips at the best of times and will often pick at them until they bleed so I wish her all the luck in the world at keeping his fingers away from those stitches lol. I know that sounds awful but those of you with step children will know what I mean about some exes lol.

Saturday was spent in the kitchen. It was an early start as my eldest had to go and work at his part time job at KFC starting at 7.30......crappy time on a weekend lol. So I got up and put on a batch of cheese and bacon scrolls and a batch of jam scrolls. These I make and freeze for the kids lunch boxes. Once I had done the usual load of washing I began on organising dinner for that night. We wanted an early dinner as we were taking the kids down the beach, so I decided that I should just do the lasagna and get the salads done and out of the way while I was already in the kitchen. So I made the lasagne, potato salad, coleslaw and tossed salad. It sure was nice!!!!

We went down the beach Saturday night, Hubby and I didn't feel like going in so we just watched the kids enjoying themselves. It was a nice night.

Yesterday we decided to go the the markets in the morning and of course, the day that we have the kids with us we saw heaps of stuff that we could have bought but we restrained ourselves as we knew that if we got stuff we would have 5 voices saying "can we have...." and of course if one finds something that they would like to buy then the others whine because they couldn't find anything to buy. Lol I have been trying to teach them that you just don't buy for the sake of buying but the younger three just don't get it. They think just because one of them finds something that they would like to spend their pocket money on, they have to have something too. Mr7 found a pirate ship complete with two pirates for 7 dollars and loves it to bits. To our amazement it even makes noises, so that wasn't a bad buy by him I don't think.

After leaving there, we made our way into the city to visit the Museum. Miss11 has been learning about Egypt at school and has been fascinated by mummies etc. So I thought it would be a nice opportunity to take her to see a real one. Her mum would never do anything like that so I thought she might like that. It was pretty cool as they had a kids trail on so they each got a reusable bag and they had to get 4 different stations ticked off to get a prize from the museum shop. They had to draw a skeleton in the Bones section, they went beach combing and came out with a little bag filled with about 8 different shells, they had the opportunity to dress up as a sea creature (which none of them would do lol but they still got their page stamped) and then they got to make their own butterfly. It was good and added to the museum for them. Their prize was a little stretchy dinosaur and a chocolate frog......It sure is nice to get something for free for a change!!!

Today it is back to school and back to housework. I'm off to empty the cat litter (I hate that job sooooo much!!!!) and mop the floors and clean bathrooms. Joy oh joy but I need to get a stack done today as tomorrow I am helping out at the school for the whole day,,,,,how did I get sucked into that one lol?????

Clutter is a burden....

I found this wonderful page online and thought I would share it with you.

http://www.livingonadime.com/articles/basics-of-tossing

I am a self confessed hoarder. I hoard sentimental type stuff and my other half hoards anything that "might come in handy" lol so together that covers a huge amount of STUFF!!!!

This page had me going "yeah, oh yeah, I get that".......ok off to continue my decluttering.......I'm up to the laundry, which houses the linen cupboard,,,,,,think I should start praying for a miracle in this one lol...wish me luck...

The heat is on.......

It is so darn hot here in Adelaide. I don't know what it is, but this year I am really feeling it. I must be getting old lol.

Dropped off the kids to school on Monday morning and the radio said it was 31,,,,it felt hotter. This morning the radio said 27 and I was seeking out the shade and wiping sweat off my brow like they had said it was 40!!! I just can't seem to get cool. I went to the shops before and it felt so darn hot in there too. I said to the woman on the checkout about how warm it was in there and she said "good I thought it was just me having hot flushes" lol, it sure wasn't just her, it was HOT!!!!

I'm over summer and just want it to end. I want to feel like doing stuff again. I started my decluttering and was all eager but even that just feels too hard right now. Yesterday I finally got to do the inside of my bathroom cabinet and got rid of 7 packets of bath crystals/salts/fizzing bombs etc. They had been in there so long that none of them really had any smell left in them. I just don't have baths,,,,,,although in this weather it does sound quite nice!

How is everyone else coping with the weather in their areas????

One shelf a day keeps the clutter away.....

Well today I decided that I really must start my decluttering. I have spent the first 4 days of my kids being back at school to restock the pantry and getting floors cleaned, dust bunnies evicted etc etc.

Today my mission was to attack the top of the bathroom vanity cabinet and the window ledge in there. I couldn't believe it when I came out of there with arms overflowing of rubbish lol. It only took me about 5 minutes but just from those two tiny surfaces I evicted from my home:

- 2 cans of hairspray (these haven't been touched since we got married over 2 years ago!!)
- a container of bubblebath with a miniscule amount in the bottom (my kids have all been shower converts for about a year now)
- a half full bottle of headlice solution which had solidified in the bottle lol
- 4 tubs of kids drawing soap stuff that has been in the house for about 4 years and the kids didn't like the smell
and
- an Avon eyeliner/shadow duo thing that I bought and never used as I didn't like the colour.

Can you believe that I had that amount of crap just sitting there taking up space when we didn't even use the stuff??????? I'm embarrassed to even admit to it but this blog in the end will be my sense of achievement. Being able to see all the clutter that leaves my house written down in black and white will be cleansing I think.

The worst part is that I have moved these items time and time again to clean the ledge/shelf for the last couple of years lol. I must be mad!!!!!!

I should actually take photos of before and after, that would probably be easier than writing it all down,,,hmmm may do that on tomorrow's task......the bathroom vanity inside......oh geez I hate to think!!!!