This morning I decided that we were long over due for a huge pot of homemade veggie soup to be made in this house! So off I went to Virgara Fruit and Veg (this is in Angle Vale about 20 minutes from where I live,,,,,,for those Aussies, it is about 30-40 minutes drive north of Adelaide). I don't go there as often as I used to, as their prices started to rise and I could get stuff equally as cheap closer to home. They used to be soooo cheap,,,, and then they decided to expand a little and the customers had to pay lol.
But on Fridays they do their market days and put selected stuff out really cheap.
Today for a sum of $39.55
3 x canned corn kernels - $4 (this wasn't that cheap but I needed them and didn't want to go to another shop lol)
2 x D'oro Tomato Puree bottles - $2.78
1 x Bunch of Celery - $2.50
3 x Margarine - $4
2 x whole Cabbages - $4
1 x Bunch Leeks - $3.99
1kg Carrots - $0.29
2 x medium Zucchini - $1.67
2.35kg Sweet Potato - $2.02
1.2kg Tangellos - $2.55
1kg Brown Onions - $0.04 (no this is not a typo they were 4 cents a kilo!!)
840g Tomatos - $1.23
1kg Royal Gala Apples - $0.45 (yes these were just 45 cents a kilo!)
2.1kg Pumpkin - $0.82
6 x Kiwi Fruit - $0.84
1.4kg Bananas - $1.37
2 Dozen Eggs - $3
2 x Punnet Strawberries $4
I thought that was a pretty good haul. The kids are all covered for their favourite lunchbox fruits and I get to make a huge pot of soup.
I am going to put in a barbecue chicken, pasta, onion, sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, celery, zucchini, leek, spring onion, and various herbs and spices and let it simmer away tomorrow afternoon.....mmmmmmmmmYUMMMY!!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
High Expectations or Just Sheer Laziness????
This week has left me feeling very, hmmm I don't know, I guess stressed out is the only way to describe it lol.
For quite a while now I have been feeling like I have too much too do and too little time to do it, but now I am wondering if it is just sheer laziness on my part or just me setting myself too high of a target to reach.
I am feeling like my house just doesn't measure up to other people's houses, not in the type of house we have or anything like that, I am not the sort of person that has to "live up to the Jones" so to speak,,,,,just in the sense of tidiness/cleanliness of the house and garden etc. Yes my house has 4 children and their friends coming and going for most of the time and then 2 step children every second weekend, one of those being autistic and tending to create a trail of mess and sometimes destruction in his path, but I always feel very self conscious of my house when other mum's come to pick up their children from play dates. Every surface in the house is cluttered no matter how hard I try to keep it tidy. Dust bunnies hide behind every hole and under every item of furniture. The sink seems to never be free of dishes even though I have a dishwasher in which to hide some. There are always baskets of clothes and in this weather clothes horses of washing around. The floors seem to scream out to the dust and dirt outside "hey we just got swept/mopped, come inside and makes us dirty would ya!!".
I started decluttering,,,,,,anyone who is in a "blended family" scenario would know what it is like to have two houses become one lol, you end up with two houses full of clutter under one roof! We have been living together for over three years now though and you would think I would have it sorted, but no. My mum recently went into a nursing home so I am also storing quite a bit of her stuff too which isn't helping! I am a very sentimental person so tend to hold on to way too much stuff and what I haven't held on to is sitting out in the carport, boxed up waiting to be listed on Oztion. It is my plan to list it and sell it and that will help us to save up for our next trip to the Gold Coast in a couple of years. But I need the motivation to get going with the photographing and listing of it all. I know if my carport was neater that would help me feel better but it just looks hideous with box after box of items sitting there.
I dearly want to get started on my scrapbooking. I like doing digital scrapbooking and my dear hubby bought me a couple of great programs a couple of years ago to help me improve the look of the photos and to get me started with my scrapbooking but I just don't have the time to make that start. I have finally got all my photos scanned onto the computer and I need to go through and sort them into "events" so that I can scrap them....so far I have only sorted them into years and there are hundreds sitting there needing to be cropped as they were scanned in 3 to a page and most of the scanned ones need to be photoshopped.
Everything I want to do just feels like a massive task. I know Flylady says baby steps but I am even struggling with that at the moment.
Am I the only one that feels like this? I seem to spend all day just doing the basics, like washing, folding, sorting, sweeping, vacuuming, preparing food, I look at the clock and it is time to go and get the kids from school and then I am helping with homework and preparing dinner, we eat, we go to soccer/karate if it is that night, come home, get the kids showered, they watch an episode of Alf and then its bedtime for the younger two, I jump in the shower, then read a chapter of Harry Potter to the older two and then we finally get them to bed and sit down for about an hour or two to watch shows that we have taped for ourselves then fall into bed, just to get up and repeat the scenario all over again. There has to be more to life than just constant drudgery right????
I would be interested to hear other people's views on the life of a stay at home mum!!!!
Friday, July 10, 2009
I Hate Autism!!!
This week has been a very trying one for me.....it is school holidays, that is always trying but this week I have had my step daughter and step son who is autistic here as well.
He loved me to bits when I first met his dad when he was just over 5 years old. He would let me do anything for him and liked to be with me. Now he is 9, he hates me, well he hates me when it is me by myself, I am fine when there are other people around, which is what makes me feel the worst of all,,,,,I feel like a child basher!
To give a brief history, his dad had virtually full time custody of him for the first 15 months after I met him, his mother wanted little to do with him. After 15 months of constant breakages in my house, literally cleaning shit off walls and off the child (he even will eat the stuff!!) I was reaching breaking point and confronted the mother saying that she needed to take responsibility for her son and not just her other son and daughter. At this point she had her other son (my hubby's stepson) and her daughter 50% of the time but the son with autism only when hubby had to travel for work. After confronting her she began to have him for 10 days each month. Last year she decided...due to the new laws relating to family tax benefits/child support etc that she would take all the children and not let us have any contact with them at all. We went through hell and ended up having to take her to court to get some visitation rights. Now over a year later we are due to return to court for final orders in two weeks time and we have hubby's son and daughter half of school holidays and every second weekend but don't see his stepson at all. Well since this visitation started back in November last year I have been going through hell.
I live in dread of school holidays when hubby has to go to work because I can get Mr9 to do absolutely nothing for me. I end up avoiding him as much as I can, but that is hard when I have to take him to the toilet every half an hour or so as he is toilet timed not toilet trained. He starts to cry as soon as I tell him to go to the toilet. He will then shut up and sit on the toilet....I have to stand there and watch him otherwise he will just run off and not go. He will sit/stand there and then as soon as I tell him to pull his pants up he does so and then drops to the floor and screams. By screaming I mean ear piercing screaming that sounds as though he is being murdered. I then have to get behind him and hoist him up which can often take 3 attempts as he has learnt to make it harder by raising his arms above his head so I can't get a grip. I then get him into the bathroom to wash his hands where I have to prompt him every step of the way. He knows how to wash his hands perfectly well but for me he won't do it. I tell him to turn the tap on, he does so and just holds his hands under the water, I tell him to use soap, he picks up the soap. I tell him to rub his hands, he does it, I tell him to rinse his hands off and he will just stand there with the water running over his hands refusing to turn the tap off. I tell him to turn off the tap and he just drops to the floor and screams again with the tap still running. I go in there and turn off the tap and then once again have to hoist him up. Finally I get him back up and he will refuse to dry his hands, so I have to do it for him which makes him once again drop to the floor, pulling the towel off the rail with him. I am at my wits end....thanks for listening I just needed to vent,,,,thank goodness school is now back and he has returned to his mother for the next 10 days!!!!!
He loved me to bits when I first met his dad when he was just over 5 years old. He would let me do anything for him and liked to be with me. Now he is 9, he hates me, well he hates me when it is me by myself, I am fine when there are other people around, which is what makes me feel the worst of all,,,,,I feel like a child basher!
To give a brief history, his dad had virtually full time custody of him for the first 15 months after I met him, his mother wanted little to do with him. After 15 months of constant breakages in my house, literally cleaning shit off walls and off the child (he even will eat the stuff!!) I was reaching breaking point and confronted the mother saying that she needed to take responsibility for her son and not just her other son and daughter. At this point she had her other son (my hubby's stepson) and her daughter 50% of the time but the son with autism only when hubby had to travel for work. After confronting her she began to have him for 10 days each month. Last year she decided...due to the new laws relating to family tax benefits/child support etc that she would take all the children and not let us have any contact with them at all. We went through hell and ended up having to take her to court to get some visitation rights. Now over a year later we are due to return to court for final orders in two weeks time and we have hubby's son and daughter half of school holidays and every second weekend but don't see his stepson at all. Well since this visitation started back in November last year I have been going through hell.
I live in dread of school holidays when hubby has to go to work because I can get Mr9 to do absolutely nothing for me. I end up avoiding him as much as I can, but that is hard when I have to take him to the toilet every half an hour or so as he is toilet timed not toilet trained. He starts to cry as soon as I tell him to go to the toilet. He will then shut up and sit on the toilet....I have to stand there and watch him otherwise he will just run off and not go. He will sit/stand there and then as soon as I tell him to pull his pants up he does so and then drops to the floor and screams. By screaming I mean ear piercing screaming that sounds as though he is being murdered. I then have to get behind him and hoist him up which can often take 3 attempts as he has learnt to make it harder by raising his arms above his head so I can't get a grip. I then get him into the bathroom to wash his hands where I have to prompt him every step of the way. He knows how to wash his hands perfectly well but for me he won't do it. I tell him to turn the tap on, he does so and just holds his hands under the water, I tell him to use soap, he picks up the soap. I tell him to rub his hands, he does it, I tell him to rinse his hands off and he will just stand there with the water running over his hands refusing to turn the tap off. I tell him to turn off the tap and he just drops to the floor and screams again with the tap still running. I go in there and turn off the tap and then once again have to hoist him up. Finally I get him back up and he will refuse to dry his hands, so I have to do it for him which makes him once again drop to the floor, pulling the towel off the rail with him. I am at my wits end....thanks for listening I just needed to vent,,,,thank goodness school is now back and he has returned to his mother for the next 10 days!!!!!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Pain free trip to the Kmart Toy Sale!!
Today I was amazed. I hate shopping (my husband thinks that is fantastic lol but most people find a woman who hates to shop is a little...shall we say "unusual"!!) and I do my best to be in and out super fast any time I go there.
After thumbing through the toy sale catalogues and feeling very disappointed in the prices and ranges of both Big W and Kmart, I circled a few bits and pieces that I thought would be good to layby for the kids for christmas.
I decided to go to Kmart first as it is the furthest away from home and thought the earlier the better is generally the rule with any sale.
Well when I pulled up in the carpark at Kmart at Ingle Farm I was amazed to see very few cars there which I guessed was a good sign. On entering the store and making my way to the back toy section I was amazed that you could actually walk around in reasonable comfort and there were actually staff wandering around that you could ask questions of.
Kmart truely have it all worked out this year I think. There were alot of signs up saying that you don't need to take the items to the layby counter, just let them know what you want and they would layby it for you (I think this only applied to their christmas laybys........one thing I hated was the fact that only certain things are eligible for the christmas layby which I thought was pretty unfair). I was after some Wii games first so I headed down there and began the horrible task of trying to find the games you want.......an "angel" appeared out of nowhere and said that you could just go up to the counter and they had all the games that were on special at the counter so they would just hand you the items you wanted. Fantastic...off I trotted to the desk and for once in my life everything I asked for was handed to me.
I got Singstar Queen for my hubby (he has been looking at this since it came out so there is something for xmas) for $26, Buzz Brain of Oz for $30?? for Mr14, Wii My Sims for $20 for Ms10, Wii Sports Party for Mr12, Zelda, Links and Gun on Wii for $69 for Mr9 and Mario Kart with Steering wheel on Wii for $69 for Mr7. Not a bad start to Christmas I thought, something for everyone in there almost for around $250.
I went down to the layby line expecting a large lineup and found to my delight that I was second in line and was served within a few minutes. I laybyed a table tennis table for $129 as our family present, this at least was available as a christmas layby so at least I don't need to find a place to hide it lol.
I was in and out and laybyed within the space of half an hour.....that is what I call perfect toy sale shopping experience!!!
I then decided that I would brave the Big W toy sale since I had such a great experience at Kmart,,,,,,,I so wish I had quit while I was ahead. I mainly wanted to get my hubby Monopoly on the Wii which they had out for $25. I went to their Parabanks store to find next to nothing left of their sale items in the games section, no helpful staff to be found and a layby queue that stretched for a long distance. I decided it just wasn't worth my effort to look any further, there were people everywhere, so walked out empty handed.
I hope Kmart learn from there efforts this year and other stores learn from it too.....now to put my thinking cap on and work out what else to get for thekids lol, they are all at an age where it is starting to get hard to think of ideas!!
After thumbing through the toy sale catalogues and feeling very disappointed in the prices and ranges of both Big W and Kmart, I circled a few bits and pieces that I thought would be good to layby for the kids for christmas.
I decided to go to Kmart first as it is the furthest away from home and thought the earlier the better is generally the rule with any sale.
Well when I pulled up in the carpark at Kmart at Ingle Farm I was amazed to see very few cars there which I guessed was a good sign. On entering the store and making my way to the back toy section I was amazed that you could actually walk around in reasonable comfort and there were actually staff wandering around that you could ask questions of.
Kmart truely have it all worked out this year I think. There were alot of signs up saying that you don't need to take the items to the layby counter, just let them know what you want and they would layby it for you (I think this only applied to their christmas laybys........one thing I hated was the fact that only certain things are eligible for the christmas layby which I thought was pretty unfair). I was after some Wii games first so I headed down there and began the horrible task of trying to find the games you want.......an "angel" appeared out of nowhere and said that you could just go up to the counter and they had all the games that were on special at the counter so they would just hand you the items you wanted. Fantastic...off I trotted to the desk and for once in my life everything I asked for was handed to me.
I got Singstar Queen for my hubby (he has been looking at this since it came out so there is something for xmas) for $26, Buzz Brain of Oz for $30?? for Mr14, Wii My Sims for $20 for Ms10, Wii Sports Party for Mr12, Zelda, Links and Gun on Wii for $69 for Mr9 and Mario Kart with Steering wheel on Wii for $69 for Mr7. Not a bad start to Christmas I thought, something for everyone in there almost for around $250.
I went down to the layby line expecting a large lineup and found to my delight that I was second in line and was served within a few minutes. I laybyed a table tennis table for $129 as our family present, this at least was available as a christmas layby so at least I don't need to find a place to hide it lol.
I was in and out and laybyed within the space of half an hour.....that is what I call perfect toy sale shopping experience!!!
I then decided that I would brave the Big W toy sale since I had such a great experience at Kmart,,,,,,,I so wish I had quit while I was ahead. I mainly wanted to get my hubby Monopoly on the Wii which they had out for $25. I went to their Parabanks store to find next to nothing left of their sale items in the games section, no helpful staff to be found and a layby queue that stretched for a long distance. I decided it just wasn't worth my effort to look any further, there were people everywhere, so walked out empty handed.
I hope Kmart learn from there efforts this year and other stores learn from it too.....now to put my thinking cap on and work out what else to get for thekids lol, they are all at an age where it is starting to get hard to think of ideas!!
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