I'm Not Usually This Deep

(I obviously have a lot on my mind tonight, and this post is long. You may want grab a hot cup of somethin' before you sit down. Or, alternatively, skim read. Or, you know, ignore altogether. Sometimes I get a little carried away!)

Today, I've been sitting back and contemplating the whole weight loss thing. It hasn't been pretty. As I jumped into the shower this afternoon, I caught sight of all the lumps and bumps that weren't there ten years ago and couldn't help but feel disgusted. Not so much because the body in the mirror wasn't a healthy shape anymore, or that it had stretchmarks and sags and droops galore - those things go with the territory of motherhood, unfortunately. It was more that I was horrified that I'd let myself quit so many darn times. That I'd had no self-control, motivation or, well, prod-in-the-rear to keep going. It should be easy to keep all of those things bubblin' away. I've spoken of my concerns before, as they related to my family history - both parents have had heart attacks, with one being fatal. Dad was 50, Mum was 55 and left us grieving. This alone should have been the biggest wake-up call imaginable. I've almost exactly followed my mother's life pattern - two boys and then a girl, beginning at age 18. Mum was 'cuddly' but not overweight until her mid-twenties. She also battled cancer at age 28 - discovered after my birth, which I found out years later (at her funeral in May 06) was very nearly fatal for both of us. I have photos of the two of us in hospital together - Mum for radiation therapy and recovery after her hysterectomy. I could have gone home (Mum couldn't breastfeed me anyway, due to her treatment) but apparently the notion of caring for three children aged 7, 8 and 9 and a newborn who required bottle feeding scared the bejeezus out of Dad and so the nurses permitted me to stay behind in hospital. Mum was in and out of hospital for close to three months, as was I, by her side.

My point is this. At some point in her adult life, my mother just gave up caring about herself. I'm sure the state of her body bothered her - I don't know a woman alive today who is happy severely overweight - but she was always so busy caring for the kids and Dad, not to mention the tag-teaming she did between home and work, that she just got herself plain ol' worn out. It was only later, when she and Dad had separated for the second time, and she was living in the northern part of Australia with my sister and her family, that she began to come alive. She went on a diet. She lost a small amount of weight but having a lowered sense of self-worth for all those years - decades - meant she gave up too easily (hmmm....what's that saying about the apple and the tree? LOL) And stupidly (yes, stupidly!) she continued to smoke. Forty years of that, and (without meaning to sound crass) something horrid was almost guaranteed to happen. And so it did. A lifetime of bad habits and she was gone from us in the blink of an eye.

I thank God for the small mercy - and yes, I consider it just that - of waiting until us kids were all grown before taking her. I cannot possibly fathom going through the death of a mother as a young teen. As it was, I was 26, had three children of my own, and I guess was able to understand the realities of it all much better.

I realise I have gotten way off track - smile - but I figure you're following what I'm trying to get at here? Good, LOL.

I do not want to end up as a mirror image of my mother. Cancer, smoking, obesity - it all contributed to a massive time bomb just waiting to go off. I don't smoke, and I've never had cancer (though I would be lying if turning 28 next week didn't put Mum's cancer at that age in serious perspective for me), but I'm hurtling down that highway of obesity at breakneck speed.

I remember thinking, years ago, that 69.3 kg (then the heaviest I'd ever been - about 153 lbs) was positively disgusting. And now here I am, maybe 5 years and 10 kgs (22 lbs) further down that highway, and I'm ashamed.

Yep, that's it - ashamed.

Again, not so much because of the numerous physical changes my body has gone through - though they ain't pretty either, LOL! - but because I've let it get this far. Because I haven't cared enough to stay the course. Because I've opted for the instant gratification of a chocolate bar over the long-term benefits of being healthy. Mercifully, I haven't yet experienced any major health complications - but then I haven't had my cholesterol checked either, LOL. All I know is that today when I was running around in our backyard playing tag with the kids, it hurt. And when I carried two bags of groceries up our pathetically-modest hill this afternoon after yet another trip to the grocery store, it hurt (I tried reciting in my head the Proverbs 31 verse that mentions 'her arms are strong for her tasks' but it didn't help, LOL) . I don't want it to hurt.

I know what I need to do. I know what a healthy food is, I know about portions, and I know what I need to do in order to reach my goal (exercise more, eat less and better). But I always begin each week with high hopes, high motivation and then seriously fall away into temptation midway through the week. By the time Monday weigh-in rolls around again, the scales are heading north instead of south. People say you shouldn't beat yourself up if you see a gain. Personally I don't think I beat myself up enough! Think about it. Pooh-poohing a gain on the scales, if you know in your heart that you haven't given it all you have (or at least 98% of what you have, LOL!) that week, is like pouring a teaspoonful of water on a forest fire. It ain't gonna do a darn thing, and what's more, the fire's just going to keep on blazing away, devouring everything (or in my case, every sweet thing!) in it's path. However, if you've spent all week arming yourself with buckets of water (ie, exercised and ate well), then you've got the oomph you need to fight the fire. And it's a fire-and-a-half, folks. You can't ignore it.

I'll often go through spurts in the beginning of the week, let's say Monday through till Wednesday or Thursday, where I've indulged in a naughty food, or skipped my 'daily' (ha!) walk, or done something else to take the water away from my fire-fighting kit. And I usually tell myself that it's no big deal - get right back on that fire-engine the next day and all will be well. But it's not. Allowing myself that leash is as good as saying "Oh, I'll fight the fire next week." The problem with that approach, at least for me, is that the fire will inevitably be raging higher and hotter than it was before. Small, instant gratification for a bigger fire (ie, more kilograms) to fight in the long run. Doesn't make any sense, does it?

When I went through my '100 miles in 7 weeks' phase during the May Day Weight Loss Challenge', the first week was h*ll. I hadn't exercised in eons and my shins were (ironically!) on fire continuously, even when I'd sat down for the day. It hurt! But then the next week got better. My shins only hurt every other day, LOL. And by the end of the third week, they didn't hurt at all. After that, I kept racking up the kilometres and seeing that number rise, and knowing I was on a 'streak', was all the motivation (ie, water) I needed to fight the fire of motivation. Melodee of The Amazing Shrinking Mom, wrote recently about ending her fourteen MONTH streak of exercise! This woman is my hero, LOL. I understand a little about what she must have felt though - albeit on a much smaller scale. Once she started, the motivation to keep going must have snowballed from one day to the next until it felt almost irrational to not base her day around exercise. When I was walking, I found a 'zone' and coasted. Exercise was easy. I pushed myself to go further, often walking 6 ½ kilometres (4 miles) every day - totally unheard of before my streak. I got anxious when I wasn't able to walk. I got snooty and snappy, LOL.

Whatever happened to THAT girl? LOL.

So I know the mechanics of weight loss back-to-front and sideways. I am not a fad-dieter. I know the ins and outs of healthy eating. But obviously I have a problem filling up my water bucket enough so that I feel I have the power to fight temptation and all the other struggles that go along with it. People who have never been overweight don't fully understand this, God love 'em. My Hubs is one of those. He's 100% supportive of me trying, but he gets frustrated with each new spurt of energy, each new laminated food chart on the fridge, each new 'failure'. He's been preposterously thin all his life, and has always lamented his inability to put on weight, so it's hard for him to fully grasp all of this. Today though, I found a neat site that delves a little deeper into the emotional/motivational side of weight loss. Reading through the site, I have renewed hope. The site is called Bringing Healthy Back (you can also get to it via the button at the top of this post) and a few posts stood out.

This one, about setting daily goals and the art of self-discipline as it applies to weight loss.
This one, with some really concrete mind-pictures. My favourite part:

I’m going to ask you to stop and think about how you rationalize your food choices for a moment. Compare them to something other than food and see if it makes sense to eat this way.

If you had a bad day would you go out and spend $3,000 to feel better? (Then why are you eating 3,000 extra calories?)

If you were sitting around the house bored, would you run out and buy three new cars? (Then why are you eating three extra helpings of mashed potatoes?)

If you had a day where you realized you were totally disgusted with your own appearance, would you ask your family members to leave and never come back? (Then why are you cutting out whole groups of foods from your daily diet?)

If you went out to dinner and the meal was going to cost you over $100 would you eat more than if the meal was going to cost $5.99? (Does the cost of the food determine how many calories you will ultimately consume? Does it change what you order?)

If it is a special occasion and there’s cake and ice cream and they are both your personal favorites would you convince yourself to eat more than one serving because you don’t know when you’ll have another chance to eat them again? (Would you buy six pairs of pants if you only needed one because you can’t be sure that they’d still be there on the rack next week?)

The revelations of why you eat the way you do can be totally skewed over time because our thinking about the “rules” for food has become totally skewed. Once we look at why we eat what we eat then we have to figure out how to change it - and that’s where self-discipline comes in.

Doesn't that just make you want to sit up a little straighter, and quaff down another glass of water? LOL.

I have NO doubt whatsoever that the scales will throw back a few fireballs when I weigh-in tomorrow morning. I won't even list the junk food I've consumed this weekend, it's too embarrassing. And I'd like to imagine I'll spend the next two or three weeks building up my water (ie, motivation) so that in a little while I'll be fighting the fire and back in 'the zone', but I can't promise that either. Experience tells me I'm not all that good at weight loss, LOL.

All I can do is try to keep my eye on the fire and try not to let it get too out of control. Then, if I manage to put out a few flames, great!

Cheers,
Lizzie

A Moseyin' Round The House Kind Of Day

(© ThistleGirl Designs)

Our fridge broke down over a week ago. This was a serious calamity, let me tell you. After doing the Phone Call Merry-Go-Round for an hour, I finally reached the business contracted by the manufacturer to fix their products while they were still in warranty. I guess I should be thankful that the ol' girl had the presence of mind to break down now, and not in two weeks when the two year warranty expires, but that's a small comfort when you're forced to shop almost daily.

Hubs' parents loaned us their camping fridge, thank goodness - without it, we'd have been forced to rent a fridge while we waited the TEN DAYS it was going to take a service person to come out. But the camping fridge is this itty bitty thing and so we've not been able to buy more than the bare basics in the way of milk, fruit and veg, and dairy. We drink a lot of milk around here and so between that and eggs and fresh produce, the local supermarket is getting a real workout. Last week, as I signed for my credit card purchase (buying groceries on credit isn't as crazy as it seems. Here's a description of how we're currently doing it - we never did get around to the cash-only grocery budget described in that post though!), instead of comparing it to the signature on the back of my card, the girl simply waved me through and said 'Never mind that, I know who you are'. Well, ahem.

September's Financial Spring Clean ends today. I'm a bit behind in my spreadsheet updating - I have a wipes container filled with receipts I've not yet inputted - but some time in the next couple of days I'll post about what I discovered, along with a few key totals (not everything...a girl has to keep some secrets!). I'll also post a PDF link to the document I created to track all of this (totals removed of course!) so you can see how I laid it out. This time around, I cut myself some serious slack and forewent my usual complicated spreadsheets. I just made up a Word document and added everything with a calculator instead of having the spreadsheet do it automatically. The end result was a much cleaner, simpler and more user-friendly document. Once I've filled in the final totals (I have to check some banking details online), I'll print this off, slip it into a sheet protector, and file it under "Financial" in my Home Management Binder. Then do it all again in October. Originally I was just going to take September as a 'snapshot' of where our expenses were going but this re-working into a simpler system has made it a lot easier to keep a track of expenses permanently.

The rest of today holds ANOTHER trip to the supermarket, this time with the kids in tow (gosh, how I love school holidays, LOL), baking cookies or some such thing, then a simple dinner with just me and The Piglets. Daddy is working afternoon shift and won't be home until late.

Oh, and progress! I de-cobwebbed my laundry room yesterday! One of the best things I ever got Hubs to do for me was to install a row of sturdy wall hooks up in the laundry room. It's amazing how I lived without these! Oftentimes this past winter we've exploded into the entry area, our raincoats dripping wet (we don't have a mudroom) and though we have a coat rack right in the (tiled) entryway, there's really no place we can hang wet dripping coats without creating a mess in this high-traffic area. Dum-dum-dum-DA! Enter these hooks. If the coats drip, it's no big deal, because the laundry room is out of the way and a 'wet area' anyway. Between two hooks makes a perfect resting spot for my Swiffer-like wet/dry mop. And I can hang up smelly swimming bags. They're so handy I'm going to ask Hubs to buy and install two more sets - one next to the original in the laundry room (I love me some hooks!) and a set near the front door so I can get rid of the clunky coat rack altogether. I also have a nifty little gadget similar to this one hanging on the back of my laundry door:

I'm trying to get into the habit of hanging clothes immediately from the dryer but it is difficult when you have a small space with no table or hooks to do the folding/hanging. This kind of rack holds two loads worth if packed tightly, and I no longer have to lug a basket of dry washing through to the other end of the house or worse, to our bedroom where it would inevitably be dumped onto the bed :)

Gosh, look at the time. The kids will have me drawn and quartered if we don't bake cookies today, LOL.

*Edited to add ~ It just occured to me as I was re-reading this that the bit about the wall hooks sounded suspiciously like a 'pay per post' spiel. Just so you know, I don't do PPP, and never will. I'm also anti-blog ads. But that's just my viewpoint - I haven't one iota of a problem with you folk who do use PPP or ads, LOL!

Cheers,
Lizzie

My Sewing Machine's Name is Hank

(© Cute Colors)

For the crafty amongst us, I've thrown a whole lot more links up in the Craft section in the left sidebar if you want to go take a browse :) Most of these are beginner-level and quite a few use fleece (just about the easiest beginner material to use, in my opinion). Head on over to check them out and then if something strikes your fancy, post in the comments!

I've had a ball doing the rounds of the 'Net tonight and stocking up on ideas - mind you, I don't have the time to sit down and do most of them, but we'll just gloss over that snippet for a moment, LOL. Question (and a somewhat delicate subject) for you all - what's the consensus on sewing your own cloth pads? I've been intrigued with the idea for quite some time and I have several links stored up someplace (a great one was found tonight) - would you guys like me to include these in the craft links? Most people I've spoken to are either all for the idea, or can't see the point/think its too icky. I made myself up a prototype a while back and, well, wore it to test it out and it was just about the most comfortable I've ever been . But I haven't taken it any further. You're either going to love the idea or hate it, LOL.

Also, if you want to drop a link in the comments about other sites you know of which offer free patterns, then I'm all ears (eyes?). I've been to all the major ones I think. My taste obviously runs fairly beginner level - Hancock Fabrics, where I snaffled a good many of my links from, has been about the best source I've found for simple, yet useful items for the home and kids. I lean more toward the sewing side of things too. So chime in!

P.S. If any of you go getting the crazy notion that I'm a 'hippy chick' because I mentioned cloth pads, rest assured I'm not, LOL. I kind of view them in the same category as sewing your own cloth diapers. And most of the gals I've come across online who are into the diaper sewing consider it a natural progression to move on to cloth for Mum too :)

Cheers,
Lizzie

I'm Sure I Left My Brain Back In May...

A big congratulations to me - I've finally finished the last assignment leftover from last semester! Now I just have this semester to worry about (which is already half over!)

But hey - yay me!

Also, this is totally blogworthy material folks, LOL. You have no idea how big of a dark cloud this has been, following me around and throwing down weedy roots in other areas of my life. I am so glad that one's over :)

Cheers,
Lizzie

Social Butterflies

(© Amreta's Graphic Corner)

We were beginning to think that our children had outgrown that 'must invite every single little person I've ever played with in the school yard' phase when it came to birthday parties. For the entire year so far, the three children have been invited to just two parties collectively, both of which we were unable to attend.

Someone obviously opened the floodgates this past week because we've received not one, not two, but FOUR birthday party invitations - three alone for my socially confident 5 year old daughter. Oh. My. Gosh. When it rains, it sure does come down in hurricane proportions, doesn't it?

Thankfully, I've been on the ball this year and have picked up various low to mid-range gifts in sales that I've put away specifically for the rush of birthdays I knew was bound to happen eventually. Stuff that popped up during incredible sales (like 70% off). I just bought a half-price Tamagotchi for my daughter's birthday present in a couple of months and because they were half price, I picked up another to put into the Gift Drawer. This would be considered a relatively 'high end' gift - lots of 'bang for the buck' - but I'm just happy I grabbed something cheaply!

Tomorrow begins the stretch. We have a McDonald's party, a picnic at a large outdoor playground (the whole family is invited to that one), an evening party which I gather will involve dinner and a movie at the birthday girl's house (all very tame and fully supervised), and a Dora/Halloween dress up get-together. So far just one of The Piglets has had their birthday this year but we've had a standard choice for celebrating for a while now. We can either have a 'party' (and there are various ways of doing this from McD's through to an at-home-with-fairy-bread deal) or the birthday child gets to choose the entertainment for the family for the day. They choose the activity, the dinner (usually takeaway...and I'm all for that!) and a cake from Mum's super-dooper children's cake book. I've made castles and treasure chests and snakes until my knuckles have developed arthritis from weilding the icing knife, LOL. But its a tradition now and I love to do it. I must admit though, we tend to steer them ever-so-gently toward the 'family outting' side of things. It takes an enormous weight off my shoulders.

From here on out, we have birthdays and celebrations coming out of our ears, LOL. In our immediate family of Mum, Dad and three kids, the first cab off the rank is Boofah in July. Then a break (filled with birthdays of extended family) and Mum's next in early October. Master J in November, and Dad and Miss Moo (and of course, Christmas) rounds off December.

December is not a cheap month.

Cheers,
Lizzie

A Big Ol' Rusty Spanner

(© Amreta's Graphics Corner)

Auughh! I just found out that our usual respite worker is on leave next week! Because we are really comfortable with her and use the service only every couple of months, we don't see the need for having a second worker 'on the books' just in case - which, as the case may be, is right now. But anyhow, this means that my birthday dinner next Wednesday is a fizzle. At least in the capacity I imagined it anyway.

When Hubs and I go out on Date Nights (and use this service), we're fairly predictable in what we do - we eat at a moderately-nice restaurant (ie, no plastic playgrounds but still comfy enough to wear jeans and a t-shirt, LOL) and then we go and see a movie. Nine times out of ten we even come home early. But this being my birthday I'd asked the service for a couple of extra hours and we were going to squeeze in another activity and really make a night out of it. Alas, its not to be. It's not that we don't like to take the kids out to 'real' restaurants, its more that feeding all five of us already costs us near on $30 even at the Golden Arches, which is just about the cheapest we can do it. Which is why Date Nights are so lovely - real, actual cutlery is involved, and as any parent of an under-8 can tell you, that's a stand-alone luxury when we're talking about eating out with the kids in tow!

Now that the kids are a little older, we can conceivably take them along to places like The Guilded Fork or The Silver Plate or whichever moderately nice restaurant strikes our fancy. A couple of years ago, this wasn't the case. But even now, having to cut up someone else's meat, or mop up spilled soft drinks, or pay $8.25 for a large bowl of fries (because, after all their moaning, that's all they'll want to eat!) doesn't exactly set the scene for a nice, romantic birthday dinner :P Much as I love the little mites, I was so looking forward to handing them off to the babysitter for the night.

At first I had a bit of a mini pity party - no birthday dinner? Preposterous! - but then I got a hold of myself and realised that for this one time, we can take the kids out to The Guilded Fork, and for just this one time, we will wear the evaporating cash and spilled drinks with good grace.

But if I have to pay upwards of $10 for a meal with a drink for the little angels, then they're gonna eat every last bite!

P.S. The other option is to go ALL out and take the kids to the movies as well. There's pretty much only one film playing that is appropriate and that's Ratatouille. Tickets for all five of us? Shudder. Including the restaurant, I can't see this option happening for less than $100, probably more. First, I'd have to negotiate the minefield of a frugal-from-conception husband. Then, presuming he agreed, he'd have to want to see yet another saccharin-sweet Pixar flick! Oooh, its a close call....

Cheers,
Lizzie

Love Actually IS all around...

Quick note - you know it must be a quick drop-in when I don't bother to put a pretty pic up! - I'm having a 'blog fast' tomorrow. I'm trying the 'hide the cord' trick again.

What about you? Do you have a 'system' for managing your time online? I'm considering avoiding the computer altogether on weekends (a BIG ask for me). I got so much done the last time I banned myself from using the laptop over the weekend that its likely that will turn permanent.

Hey, it's my birthday next week! We have a nice evening planned on the day (Wed 3rd Oct...hint, hint) and its another example of how lucky we feel that we're able to access a qualified care/respite worker for Master J who looks after the other two kiddos as well (respite care in my area has had a really bad run in the last couple of years - many are turned away from the few services that do exist). Wanna know how much we pay? Remember this is for a worker who has had many, many years experience in a 'caring' role, manual handling certification (not that we need that part, but...) and relavent courses and senior first aid qualifications. $3 per hour...for ALL of the children. I know, it's almost criminal, isn't it? We usually take 5 hours so the maximum we pay for a night of qualified supervision is only $15. Official 'babysitters' are fairly uncommon around these parts (most are families and friends whom the child knows really well through other means) but I do know that when we looked into this seven or so years ago, a teenage, unqualified babysitter that we knew was charging $10 per hour, per child...and had offers rolling in. Good grief. Another reason to be thankful in our present circumstance. Of course, the service is heavily subsidized (no worker would work for those wages...) but what a blessing it has been to us over the last four or five years :) We'd happily pay more. Through this same respite service we've also given given accomodation and meal vouchers for a 'parents getaway' on two occasions - one in particular was to the Hilton, easily $100+ value. Gosh, did we feel guilty!

Do you know what my idea of the perfect birthday treat would be? An entire day at home, alone, curled up on the couch with hot chocolate (or, as the weather turns, a cold glass of something) watching all the chick flicks on my list. I'm saving The Holiday for when it gets closer to Christmas. Each Christmas Eve though, my tradition is to throw on Love Actually as I'm wrapping last-minute gifts. Trivia for you - did you know that all of the four principle actors in Sense & Sensibility were in Love Actually?

Emma Thompson was Elinor Dashwood in S&S and played Karen, the Prime Minister's sister, in Love Actually.

Hugh Grant played Edward Ferrars in S&S and (obviously) the Prime Minister in Love Actually.

Alan Rickman played Col. Christopher Brandon in S&S and Harry, Karen/Emma Thompson's husband in Love Actually.

And Kate Winslet was Marianne Dashwood in S&S and appeared as a cameo in Love Actually when Daniel (Liam Neeson) and Sam are watching Titanic together.

I could go on and on, with oh, about twelve thousand links between all the British actors in films of that ilk - but I won't, LOL.

See you on Thursday!

Cheers,
Lizzie

Well And Truly Spring

(© Country Patch Collections)

Today, for the first time this season, I sent my kids off to school without a sweater.

The weather is turning (Spring for us down under), activities and menus are changing, and we've entered into that lovely transitional phase between the cold, rainy winter and the stiflingly-hot summer. Also, Spring (and Autumn) are traditionally a little easier on our budget without the need to get the gas heater or ducted air-conditioner going.

What a lovely weekend we had! With the warmer weather, my thoughts turn to the garden, and trust me when I say, I'm no gardener! Hubs has long since removed all plant-buying privileges however several weeks ago he strangely agreed to my request to buy something...anything...in lieu of a puppy.

We settled on cute little pink daisy bush. We brought it home from the plant nursery along with some potting mix (our soil isn't wonderful) and prompty set about situating it in the ground. For the first few days, all was well. And then the flowers started to turn brown.

I panicked.

I distinctly remembered the conversation Hubs and I had had in the nursery the day we bought it. "If it dies, we're not buying another plant. Ever!" And so I fretted something fierce for days, as I watched the gorgeous pink daisy heads wither, shrivel, and fall off, one by one. Eventually, I told Hubs. He promptly informed me that Daisy was at the end of her flowering season and the plant was doing a bit of a natural 'dead heading'. And then he laughed. Because I'm that bad at gardening!

See? Still green!

This is just one of a vast number of examples I could bring forth to illustrate my utter lack of growing abilities. And yet I mention it now because, well, the garden really could do with a bit of a spruce-up now the sun is out and since I've survived the first few weeks of a new plant, my calculations tell me I'm ready to adopt another, LOL.

Okay, so we've established I'm a horrible gardener. However, one of the best parts of my garden (which is small, by the way), is a jasmine creeper growing on a fence along the side of the house. Oh, how I'd dearly love to 're-do' that whole narrow garden bed, but it sits in 90% shade every single day and all plants I like enjoy the sun. It would be a perfect spot for a vegetable garden if the sunshine would co-operate. Anyhow, I know exactly when the weather has turned for the season when the heavenly scent of jasmine starts to float on through the bathroom/main bedroom/bedroom 2 windows (all along that side of the house) on a warm day. I absolutely love the smell of jasmine. Ah, good days.


Oh, and a few weeks ago, we noticed a nest secreted away at the top of the vine attached to our pergola. Hubs eventually got up there with the camera this week and this is what we found:

That's an itty-bitty baby pigeon. We'd been watching it's Mama come and go for the last month and knew it had laid two eggs (we're still not quite sure if there's one or two babies). This nest is within 2 metres (6 feet) of our backdoor, and if you've got kids under the age of ten, you'll know the term 'barrelling out the back door' intimately, LOL. And that's exactly what they'd been doing. Us too, on occasion. The poor Mama would have a little birdie heart attack, fly directly upward, and almost knock herself out on the pergola roof! So each time a kid goes out back to play, there's always a qualifier attached - "But only if you don't scare the pigeon!" (And I hope our good deed is returned when the two of them go elsewhere to do their pigeon-poops!) Thankfully Mama just looks down on us with bemused detachment these days, having grown accustomed to the noisy intrusion. But I doubt she'll be back next year!

And finally, I offer you this:


This monstrosity is the work of my Hubs. Nope, its not dead. Yet. Can you see the edges of the plants next to this one? It's foliage was originally all the way out on all sides, easily five or six feet across and probably five feet tall, and Hubs decided he didn't like how 'overgrown' it looked. It took him a month, but he finally managed to clip the whole thing. We have a kerbside green waste service (similar to the usual trash pick-up) but it only comes once a month. We filled the green waste bin in time for pick-up one month, kept trimming and filled it up again, and in the time it took for the next monthly pick-up to roll around to empty the second bin-full, Hubs progressively cut a little more each week and stuffed it down the bottom of our regular rubbish bin. It was a LOT of greenery. Now it just looks dead, sitting directly in front of my front door, next to lovely green shrubs. Aughh.

I may actually have to pull some weeds today. That's how happy this weather is making me!

Cheers,
Lizzie

The Dignity of Risk

(© Grace Lee, www.cutecolors.com)

A long time ago, when Master J was newly diagnosed and we were going through that Must. Have. Much. Information. Now phase, I came across this little piece online somewhere. If someone can help me out with a credit, please do so. I believe I got it originally from a parent advocacy site.

*UPDATE* Hat tip to viola-playing Liz, who informs me this is from Linda Stengle's book, Laying Community Foundations for Your Child with a Disability. Thanks again Liz :)

The Dignity of Risk

What if you never got to make a mistake?
What if your money was always kept in an envelope where you couldn't get it?
What if you were never given a chance to do well at something?
What if your only chance to be with people different from you was with your own family?
What if the job you did was not useful?
What if you never got to make a decision?
What if the only risky thing you could do was act out?
What if you couldn't go outside because the last time you went it rained?
What if you took the wrong bus once and now you can't take another one?
What if you got into trouble and were sent away and you couldn't come back because they

always remember your 'trouble'?
What if you worked and got paid $0.46 an hour?
What if you had to wear your winter coat when it rained because it was all you had?
What if you had no privacy?
What if you could do part of the grocery shoping but weren't allowed because you couldn't do all

of the shopping?
What if you spent three hours every day just waiting?

What if you grew old and never knew adulthood?
What if you never got a chance?

This has always struck a chord with me. Perhaps because I can forsee a future of difficulties for my own son :) So, the next time you sit in a car, order at a restaurant, speak freely to another person without the aid of your hands, view the world through clear and functional eyes, walk on two legs and lament the cost of gas or milk, be thankful that you have the option (*smile*)

Cheers,
Lizzie

Come On Down!

And we have a winner!

Would the reader from Singapore who popped in via a Google Reader link please raise their hand? (Sorry, my stat counter doesn't give me more information other than an IP address and I presume you wouldn't want that flashed around Bloggityville!) Here's a big bunch of cyber balloons!

Congratulations! You have the somewhat dubious distinction of being the 10,000th reader of Lizzie's Home. If you feel obliged, email or leave a comment so I have a name to put to the stat!

And for everyone else, thankyou so much for being so supportive and welcoming as I backed the moving truck into the cul-de-sac that is Bloggityville. Yep that's me. Hi! I'm the one with the loud children, LOL.

(And I only 'babysat' the stat counter for forty minutes waiting for the 10,000th reader to pop in! If you live in Independence, Missouri, and came via a link from Tales From The Scales, you missed out by a smidgeon!)

Cheers,
Lizzie

Laminating Makes Things Shiny

Today, I've been reflecting on change. And how cool my new laminator is.

After posting yet another rejig of my Routines earlier this week, and after a less-than-stellar start to the Look Great in 2008 Challenge, last night I sat down and put on my Nerd Hat. I 'prettied up' my Routines page, and added great graphics to Lizzie's Diet Checklist. I also opened up a new document and wrote myself out a 'cheat sheet' of sorts to go along with the Checklist - the foods I'll be eating and their serving amounts. And me being me, I bolded and italic-ed and switched out fonts until my heart was fit to burst. And then I laminated them all.

The Routines sheet went up on my pantry door, preserved for posterity amidst the crazy morning rush (when I might not have a chance to go back and forth between my Home Management Binder). The Diet Checklist and Food sheets are up on the fridge door. Being laminated, I can re-use these week after week with the help of a dry-erase marker. And also...

...they look purdy :)

Then I went to the grocery store, and stocked up on those ingredients I didn't already have on hand. Tonight I'll sit down and make up a menu for both dinners and lunches so that I'm not tripping over myself come midday tomorrow.

Why is it so hard to start and maintain motivation for a new healthy lifestyle change? The first week or two for me are particularly hard, but I know that once I have some sort of positive feedback from the scales, I'm going to feel compelled to keep going. It was like that with the walking during the last Challenge. Some days the absolute last thing I wanted to do was to hit the walking trail but I made myself go because I was already in that mindset. So I'm hoping it will be the same this time around.

I'm also making a major change in another area of my life. From tomorrow, I'm going to try my hardest to break into the 6am Club. This is scary stuff for me - I am an absolute night-owl from way back and its not uncommon for me to hit the hay around 1am or beyond - even on a school night (which means having to get up around 7:15 the next day). Then I spend most of my morning feeling as though I'm walking through wet cement...and compensate with sugar. Not good. So to me, part of the healthy lifestyle thing will revolve around getting a good night's sleep. According to my Routines, bedtime is at 11pm, giving me about 7 hours sleep a night. Realistically, the first week is going to HURT, but the pain will be minimised by going to be early. This, in turn, means I have to be on the ball with my Evening Routine, and in particular, not leaving the 'prep for tomorrow' thing until after 11pm like I've tended to do lately! And I'll step out on a limb here and confess that though I have those Routines in place, I've had a lot of trouble sticking to them. I'll be paying particularly close attention to my newly-laminated Household Routines sheet as I go about my day tomorrow.

I'm also totally going for a walk tomorrow.

I am.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Who'd Have Thought I'd Survive This Long?

Oooh, I'm getting close to my next milestone - 10,000 visitors (in around 6 months - plus a extra couple of days!). I've had such a good time with Lizzie's Home, and I have a whole bunch of good ideas stored away...somewhere...you guys have all been wonderful. Special thanks to Tina from Mummified Times Five (1) and Mummified Times Five (2) for all her help in teaching me how to revamp the blog. Something must have worked, because I can now - gasp! - embed my own things in my own code without having to run sobbing to her for help!

Speaking of which, I found a neat embeddable (is that a word?) music player for blogs today. I'm still undecided whether to put the playlist I made up here. I probably will, but only because it doesn't start automatically (ie, the reader needs to click on the player to launch it). I find the auto-start players on others' blogs to be kind of distracting, especially if I want to click to watch a YouTube clip embedded on the same site. What do you guys think? Feel like listening to a few of Lizzie's Favourite Tunes? They're predominantly Christian but there are a few (very appropriate) secular songs in there as well. The playlist is long - 45 songs - because that was a legal requirement of some type on the site where I found the player (you can read more info about it when I pop it up somewhere here). The playlist was painfully easy to set up, with a vast music library to choose from. It did take me a long time to pick the 45 songs though - another legal requirement sees that you can only have a maximum of 3 songs from each artist, but I think that's a bonus really - makes for good variety.

Leave a comment if you want to see a music player go up. Remember, it's NOT an auto-launch player so if you don't fancy listening to the songs on it, you don't have to!

Cheers,
Lizzie

Wonderful Things To Do In Bed

I had the most decadent experience today. I had a daytime nap.

Aren't they wonderful? It had been an eternity since I've laid down during the daylight hours but I tell you what, I truly needed it today. Since mentioning the bout of sickness going around Lizzie's Home earlier this week, and (ahem) mentioning that I have one of those constitutions that rarely sees me get sick, what should happen?

Uh-huh.

It probably didn't help that I've been sharing a bed with Mr McGermy for the last few days (he's on his third day off from work today), but I've managed to survive that kind of thing before with nary a cough. I think it was probably the visit from my Dad this week that did it - he's on the tail end of a bad cold and the germs were just waiting to jump ship in our house. Oh, and my poor Dad ate something bad the day he was here and spent a large portion of the evening (severely) throwing up into our toilet. No, it wasn't my cooking! He thinks he had a bad sandwich for lunch before he arrived. In any case, I've only ever seen/heard my Dad throw up one other time, and that was in hospital after his heart attack, when he was hopped up on nausea-inducing drugs. And trust me, this recent bout was epic in proportions. Of course, I couldn't help but put on my Mummy Hat (do we ever take those off?) and crept to the bathroom door on several occasions to ask if there was anything I could do. And Dad being Dad (a real salt-of-the-earth-shrug-it-off-I'm-not-dying-yet type) he wasn't about to let me help. He simply finished throwing up, washed up, and came out into the living area and picked up the conversation where he'd left off. Meanwhile at that stage we ALL felt a bit nauseous, having listened to the rowfing for an hour straight. Yuk! As bad as I feel today, I am so thankful I'm not worshipping at the porcelain altar!

When I woke this morning, gosh I felt horrid. I knew I'd come down with whatever it is before I'd even opened my eyes this morning. I haven't felt right all day. I can't figure out if its still brewing or if I'm only getting a mild variant. I feel flu-ey and tired, but I'm not (yet) coughing or phlegmy. Thank God for small mercies, right? But I've been so wiped out all day that I knew the second I got back from the morning school run that a nap was going to feature prominently in my day. I had originally planned to head in to the library today but I didn't even have the energy to find my course books and at one point I nodded off holding a cup of tea! Pretty big indication to stay at home. I eventually crawled into bed after lunch and had a blissful 1 ½ hour nap before the afternoon school run, and it worked wonders. I'm still exhausted, but this way I might actually last long enough to cook dinner...

Cheers,
Lizzie

Tweaking The Routines

(© Grace Lee, www.cutecolors.com)

I thought it was about time I posted an update on the Routines here at Lizzie's Home. Things have changed just a little since the last update - that's the great thing about having Routines in place - they're fluid, designed to flex and mould around your own family circumstances.

When I sat down to rejig the Routines the other day I took it one step further and broke my day into 6 distinct blocks - the Morning Routine, Daytime Routine, Afternoon Routine, Dinner Routine, Evening Routine and Late Evening Routine. Surprisingly I've been following this basic daily plan for a few weeks now almost without registering it - a sign of a good set of Routines :) Also, I've mostly done away with specific times and stuck with a 'Routine window', which seems to work better. I have kept times for my Daytime Routine simply because it is so easy to get hyperfocussed on one homemaking task at the expense of other things.

For ease of reading, I'm throwing all six Routines in here, instead of breaking them up into separate posts as I did before. Consequently, this post may be a bit long.

Morning Routine
(6:00 ~ 8:40)

Wake up
Shower
Wake kids, breakfast (7:00)
Run washing machine
What's For Dinner?
Finish lunches
Kids dressed
Kids teeth brushed (J ready by 7:45)
Unload/reload dishwasher
Mum's breakfast & Think About Today
Mum dressed, teeth brushed
Miss Moo's hair (because it is so long, it takes some time to wrestle with before school)
School run (leave by 8:40)

Daytime Routine
(9:15 ~ 3:00)

9:15 ~ Exercise (usually a walk)
10:30 ~ Break, morning tea
11:00 ~ Housework (reboot laundry first)
1:00 ~ Lunch
1:30 ~ Study/Writing
3:00 ~ School run

Afternoon Routine
(3:40 ~ 5:00)

Help the kids get changed
Afternoon tea
Unpack/repack schoolbags (deal with school paperwork)
Read with kids
Kids computer time
Reboot laundry, fold clothes

Dinner Routine
(5:00 ~ 7:00)

Dinner preparation/Break
Set table
Eat dinner

Evening Routine
(7:00 ~ 8:30)

Clear the table
Clean the kitchen
Load and run dishwasher
General tidy
Kids baths, pyjamas, brush teeth
Lay out clothes for tomorrow (Mum & Dad too)
Semi-pack lunches
Load washing machine
Think About Tomorrow (do we have any appointments, are there any special school events etc)

Late Evening Routine
(8:30 ~ 11:00)

Cuppa & Mum's Down Time
Prep for bed (10:30)
Bedtime (11:00)

Cheers,
Lizzie

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch - Plus Other Stuff

Ouch. I'm here, but I'm not here. Apparently, someone snuck into my bedroom last night and stuffed my head full of bricks.

The dreaded lurgies have hit Lizzie's Home this week. My mercifully-free-from-sickness hubby has come down with a cold, but not your average tissue-and-cough variety. Oh no, not my Hubs. He's had to take two days off work and he's looking really sorry for himself. Clearly, I spoke too soon.

Master J also has a cold/cough. The child whom we laughingly refer to as The Child Who Never Gets Sick because, of course, he has his own Health Care Card (giving him access to heavily discounted prescriptions medications, amongst other things) and we all know once you have access to cheap health care, you never get sick. The child whom our family doctor last saw before he started school at age five. I'm not joking. He's not had more than a bit of lethargy in YEARS. I still don't think its really serious but we're keeping a close eye on him.

Miss Moo had a bit of an 'episode' during the school drop off this morning - apparently she ended up with the wrong-coloured pencil pot. When another young lad asked for it back (presumably, it belonged to his table), she cried (yes, this is unusual for her). Never mind the fact that these pencils are not the property of individual children but part of the classroom stash. Really, is there anything more frustrating than 5 year old logic? She looked at the purple pots everyday therefore they belonged to her. End of story. Auugh!

My break from blogging over the weekend did wonders for my study to-do list. I just have loose ends to tie up on that niggly assignment (honestly, I should be doing that right now...) and I've already begun the next. Now I just have to keep the momentum going.

I'm still diligently tracking my finances as part of September's Financial Spring Clean. One word - eek! Big spanner in the works on the horizon - scrapbooking. I think I might have possibly been bitten by the bug. The bug remains small, LOL, but it definitely bit. I did my first page ever last night and I don't know if this phenomenon has a name, but I think I've probably made a classic mistake. I 'finished' a page, basked in my creative genius for a few minutes (okay, hours) and then decided I needed to add '....something'. So I grabbed the nearest black felt tip pen and outlined some letters on the page. First problem - the marker was not labelled photo safe. The ink doesn't touch any of the photo, but it can't be good regardless. My bad. Also, the paper I'd used as a border/backing was a 'linen look' thingamajig, and the ink from the marker bled. Not horribly, but enough that it will bother me forever. And ever. I will take a photo for you all and I already know you'll look and think 'I can't see anything wrong!' but trust me. The mistake is there.

Gosh, scrapbooking is E X P E N S I V E. I've sort of been a bit naughty (not just during September I might add) and have grabbed the odd sheet of stickers and papers and whatnot when I've seen them really cheap. I've got some moderately good sources for the less expensive stuff but even that adds up. Being that I didn't really know what I wanted to do or what I needed (seriously, I had no idea), I just kind of grabbed whatever was cheap and cute at the time. I think in the future I'll plan things out a little better. So, to recap, I now have the following 'personal craft projects' on the wish-list:

* Scrapbooking
* Redwork
* Making fleece snuggle rugs (the no-sew type) for, well, whoever. Just because they look cute. I've made one before but Barb over at A Chelsea Morning gives some great instructions for a no-sew blanket and I really like her way of tying the knots)
* Developing my Hubs photographs into cards to sell (they may be available through Lizzie's Home eventually - and they are good!)
* Whatever Christmas craft strikes my fancy at the time...

Oh, I am so my mother's daughter!

I'm off to catch up on a little housework. Oh, and on the 'healthy eating plan' is off to a slow, but steady start. I had a minor victory yesterday - sort of - when I got a Subway salad instead of McDonald's (those salads are HUGE by the way, so much better than the McD's salads...I couldn't finish mine. I opted for double meat since I had no carbs (Chicken Teriyaki) and decided against the sauce. My 'sandwich artist' did drown the whole thing in salt and pepper though, blech). Also, if anyone in Australia is familiar with Charlesworth Nuts, you'll understand this next bit. Charlesworth makes these little balls of chocolatey heaven called Chocolate Raspberries. It is used to be common practice for me to get a $5 bag's worth (around 300g, or 10 ½ oz) and walk around the shopping centre munching on those and then going to get lunch. That's like a bazillion calories folks. And I'm barely even joking. And I so badly wanted to go get me some Choc Raspberries yesterday. To the point of having to force myself to walk across the court and into the fruit and vegetable shop lest I smell the choc nutty goodness coming from Charlesworth. Auugh. I even bought a banana. And then, I found myself a little cafe, ordered a pot of tea for one (I was the youngest patron in there by a good forty years, and I even detected a raised eyebrow from the girl at the counter when I ordered my tea - perhaps because they hadn't had anyone under the age of thirty order tea and not a double choc mochalatte (or whatever) before?) And I ate my banana and drank my tea and did my course work. And rocked at all three.

Then when I got home later that night I promptly ate a Snickers bar. Sigh. Progress people, progress.

Today I've done okay - but we're getting into the danger zone (lunchtime through to dinnertime). It takes concentration not to reach for the Doritos. Or the sackfuls of candy the children got from the Royal Show last week. Or the massive bag of chocolate we made up for Daddy for Father's Day.

Now, that housework...

Cheers,
Lizzie

A Quick Bloggy Break Update

Surprisingly, this whole 'blogging break' thing seems to be working. I know - what am I doing here now? I'm on the Grandpa PC, thus without access to all my links in my Favourites folder on the laptop. And I feel no compulsion to manually type in the URLs of the sites I visit regularly...that's if I could remember them. I mean, I could use the links here on Lizzie's Home, but that would be cheating :)

I gave myself half an hour yesterday and today to check emails, both on battery power, which has now been obliterated. Methinks my laptop battery has about half what the manufacturer says it has.

Good news though - I've spent a large chunk of this weekend studying, and I think I may have broken through the hump that has had me paralysed for weeks. It's not my best work, but it will get me a pass, which given how late the assignment is, would be a brilliant result.

The Piglets are at that stage this afternoon, after a weekend off from school, where they're starting to push boundaries, so things are a little slower on the study front today. But I should still get the entire assignment finished by the time I hit the sack tonight.

And an ironic little twist. This is post 178 - about the same as I weigh right now in pounds. Blech. Though the Look Great in 2008 Challenge (I'm too tired to do hyperlinks...see the right sidebar, LOL) starts officially on Wednesday 19th, I'm starting on Monday 17th (tomorrow). And not before time either.

See you on the flip side...

Cheers,
Lizzie

Kicking And Screaming

Well, it's official folks. This little red hen is forcing herself to go on a blogging break. And it is breaking my heart.

Oh, don't worry, the break will only last until Monday (17th), but I feel like I'm abandoning a child or something. Blogging is like a drug, I tell you.

Officially speaking, I might have about 2 ½ hours of battery power left on the laptop (it's currently plugged in, I'm totally cheating right now) but when I pack up tonight I'm boxing up the power adaptor and putting it in the most awkward storage spot I can find. I'd give it to Hubs to hide for me but no doubt after a weekend without a computer the house is going to be pretty clean, and at least some study done, so he might figure he's on to a good thing and neglect to give it back. And we totally don't want that. So I might get a teeny smidgeon of blogging in at some point tomorrow but once the power drains, that's it till Monday. Sob.

The ONLY REAL CONCERN I will allow myself to have this weekend is to finish that assignment. I may also cycle through a few loads of laundry, but no other housework. Although, studying while Hubs is at work and the kids are at home, isn't the most peaceful way to go about things. I expect to dish out a lot of bribes. A couple of days ago we went to our city's Royal Show (think like a really big State Fair, I guess - 8 days and over a million people through the gates) and the kids made out with a stash of showbags (thankfully purchased with their own money!). Consolidated, each kid ended up with a medium sackful of candy. They're either going to spend the days bouncing off the walls and therefore using up all their energy and needing constant naps, or collapse into a sugar coma - both options provide an eventual stretch of silence which will be rather advantageous given my present circumstances :P

(At this point you can totally tell I'm prattling on with the sole purpose of staying online as long as humanly possible, can't you?)

I've got like a bazillion things I want to achieve, both personally and around the home. I'm swooning over the early Christmas crafts in the current issue of Handmade today. I love looking at country craft magazines and projects. I just don't often get around to doing any of them! If you click on the link at the bottom of the page above, you'll see that the next issue is also all about Christmas crafts. Country Christmas crafts folks. My kind of magazine - all pretty and feminine. They don't have a lot of projects available on the website but honestly, this is the kind of magazine you're meant to curl up with over a cup of tea. Plus, the paper copy has the pattern sheets. This doesn't exactly help my overseas readers, who are in the majority, LOL, so my apologies! They do have some pretty desktop wallpapers for download though. Oh, and there's a simple metric-to-'everywhere else' (LOL) conversion table in the Recipes section (see the Bonus tab at the top). Any time I add a recipe on Lizzie's Home I give the 'everywhere else' conversions for you, but you never know when you might need it.

How I long for the days when I'm home all alone, the housework is done and the day is just screaming out for a craft project! As it stands now, if I have the time to craft, then I have the time to study, end of story. And I can't tell you how hard that hit when I was flicking through today's mag and mentally counting up about a dozen projects I'd dearly love to drown myself in!

Okay, that's it - I can't put it off any longer. See you Monday!

Cheers,
Lizzie

Chore Charts ~ Revisited, Part One

(© Grace Lee, www.cutecolors.com)

Don't Try This At Home is hosting a Children's Chore Carnival. I'm totally going to cheat on this one and link to an older post I did on the subject. Some of the details have changed (we do a different combination of chores and the charts look totally different) but eventually I'll post an updated version. Right now I'm seriously blogging with one hand and stirfrying chicken with the other, so...

For now, here's Chore Charts & Pocket Money, originally posted December 29, 2006.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Menu Planning at Lizzie's Home ~ Revisited

(© Grace Lee, www.cutecolors.com)

I've recently made a couple of minor changes to my old "If It's Monday, It's Spaghetti" menu plan. Here's the new version.

Monday ~ Pasta
Tuesday ~ Chicken
Wednesday ~ Frugal / Misc
Thursday ~ Beef
Friday ~ Fridge & Freezer Fare
Saturday ~ Chicken
Sunday ~ Roast / Homemade Pizza / Takeaway

The two main changes are to Friday and Sunday nights. Fridge & Freezer Fare is just a fancy way of saying we eat leftovers or a previously frozen meal, perhaps from a Cooking For The Freezer session. And I have more time on Sundays to potter about in the kitchen, so it works well for labour-intensive meals like homemade pizza (I make my own dough and chop the ingredients myself). In a four week period, Sundays look something like this: roast dinner (whatever is on sale that week, be it chicken, beef or lamb), homemade pizza, roast dinner, takeaway and then repeat.

With the pizza, I make a very large batch of dough and the kids get to choose their own toppings. I make three smaller pizzas around 6-8 inches in diametre, which gives enough for the kids to have half for dinner that night and half cold in their lunchboxes the next day. They go absolutely wild over choosing what to put on top, and it tastes delicious the next day. For Mum & Dad, we each get a whole 12 inch pizza made to our own specifications - don't worry, we don't eat the whole thing in one sitting! - plus I usually have enough dough/ingredients leftover for 1, sometimes 2 more large pizzas, which get added to the Freezer Fare stash.

I never used to make my own pizzas (or if I did, it was with premade bases bought from the store) but then I stumbled upon this recipe for pizza dough at the Mrs Catherine's Making It Home blog and suddenly I had a recipe that actually turned out fluffy and spongey, not soggy or brick-like. I make twice the quantity she uses and omit the cornmeal and it works just fine. I also use Defiance brand Baker's Flour (probably available nowhere else but Australia, LOL, but I believe it has a higher protein content than your general ol' versions) - it comes in a big 5 kg (11 lb) bag and I seem to have better baking results with it over the usual generic plain (all-purpose) flour. I buy yeast in a canister (Lowan brand in Australia) and store it in the freezer. I can't remember how long I've had my current tin but it's still working well. Oh, and another tip for making the dough - instead of using Mrs Catherine's 'oven light' dough-warming technique, pop the dough (which is, of course, in a large bowl, covered with a kitchen towel), in your car, parked in the sun. Even on a fairly cold day, the inside of the car will be warm enough to rise your dough, though it may take a little longer. If the car is in the shade, it's probably not worth the effort to move it, LOL.

Then we spread it with tomato paste, whatever toppings you like (we are partial to a bit of salami these days, and I cannot make pizza without semi-dried tomatoes, yum), top with cheese, bung it in the oven, and enjoy. The dough puffs up wonderfully, no soggyness in sight. It also freezes perfectly.

Happy cooking!

Cheers,
Lizzie

New, From The Lizzie Channel!

(© Thistlegirl Designs, http://www.thistlegirldesigns.com/)

Right, that's it! I'm so sick of getting all enthused about a healthy eating plan and then finding the hidden flaws halfway through my first week. Like that all the recipes they give include ingredients like braised artichoke hearts. Or that they bury their heads in the sand over the rising cost of meat these days. It drives me crazy!

So I'm writing my own diet healthy eating plan.

I know, I know, where's the big revelation in that? Clue: There isn't one. Any doofus with a pen and a free afternoon could do it - I'm just a little slower on the uptake, LOL.

I do like a lot of the principles of The Total Wellbeing Diet. But there are some I don't. And to be honest, I have enough on my (rather large) plate right now to be coming up with healthy alternative meals on the fly. History shows that it just doesn't work for me - I need a plan. The Total Wellbeing Diet advocates four dinners of red meat a week (of about 200g, or a bit under a half a pound of meat per serve), two of fish and one of chicken (both in similar amounts). We haven't eaten that much red meat in any given week in years. We have a natural lean toward our own style of menu planning - and it is definitely not that heavy on the red meat. So I'm taking what I like about each of the plans that has worked for me, bundling it up with (what I think is) sound nutritional advice, adding a bit of common sense (I may as well shellac the carbs to my rear if I continue to eat them in the amounts I am), and going it alone.

I like the idea of this daily checklist (it's a PDF file), also from The Total Wellbeing Diet, but I'm going to make my own (surprise, surprise, LOL), according to the foods I like and need to eat.

I don't know how I managed to lose 400g (almost a pound) last week, I truly don't. I wasn't even close to trying. But as I was slipping into my size 18 (Aussie sizes) shirt yesterday, the first I've ever owned in that size, well, it really stank. No, not the shirt, the situation! Twenty kilos to lose is horrible. Once-upon-a-before-children-time I was about 125 lbs. Sigh. One thing I have discovered this week (that I can't believe I've missed thus far) is Melodee's weight loss blog, The Amazing Shrinking Mom. I've been reading Melodee's Actual Unretouched Photo blog for a couple of months now but only discovered Shrinking Mom via someone else's blog. This lovely lady is an inspiration, having lost over 50 pounds, and she mirrors so many of my struggles and concerns. The fact that she'd managed to succeed even with all those stumbling blocks really gave me the cyber-kick in the pants I needed to stop accepting my own excuses this week.

Something needs to give folks. And I'd really rather it wasn't my chair.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Sugar Withdrawals = Insanity

(Yet another one...big cyber-declutter tonight. This one originally published April 4th, 2006, after I became convinced that all the evils of the world resided in sugar and it must be erradicated from my diet immediately. Also, any brands mentioned will be instantly recognisable to Aussies but perhaps not to those living overseas, but I think you'll get the general gist. Substitute in your own recognisable brands of sugar-laden candy and junk food - the end result will be the same!)

I must be insane.

That's the only reason I can think of to explain why I've forced myself into a self-imposed sugar detox this week. After buying a 12pk of Freddos/Caramello Koalas to have on hand as 'treats for the kids' (I needed some housework done...and they respond particularly well to bribery) and having them 'disappear' a mere 24hrs later, I realised I needed help.

Hello, I'm Lizzie. I'm a sugar junkie.

Chocolate is by far my most feared and respected nemesis. Don't know how Cadbury manages it, but they've got me to ransom. And whoever makes M&Ms (is it Mars Confectionery?) sits firmly nearby, ready to shoot peanut M&Ms into my mouth at the drop of a hat. It's completely not my fault, I swear. I'm just an innocent victim. Maybe I should sue? LOL.

So what follows is an account of the first day of sugar restrictions. I lost a lot of good friends on the battlefield today. RIP Sugar. I'll miss you mate.

Tuesday - Day One

Oh good Lord, what have I done? I was only 'allowed' 1 tsp of sugar with my cup of tea this morning and you wouldn't believe the difference half a tsp of sugar can make, but I missed every single grain. Don't have sugar on my brekky cereal anymore so that one was easy.

Mid morning: another cup of tea. Searching for snackfood. None there. Cursing plan to eat remainder of Tim Tams last night so as to start with clean slate today. A rich double-coat Timmy would go down sweeeeet with this cup of tea....hang on! Remember the mantra Lizzie. Chocolate is evil. Apples taste just as good. Chocolate evil. Apples good. Chocolate....blood sugar dropping....diabetic coma approaching.....

Lunchtime: ham salad pita. Am trying the theory that injecting one's body with super-healthy foods will help make me feel full. Darn nutritionists! What would they know? Even one of the ten nutritionists DIDN'T recommend kids eat Weetbix...

Afternoon: another cup of tea. Feeling faint, and cuppas are my only 'legal' source of added sugar. Resist the urge to up-end the sugar bowl into my mug. Feeling virtuous so decide to make fruit 'salad' with pears and apple. Forget I don't really like pears. Eat them anyway.

Dinner: French Onion Steak, mashed potatoes, vegies. Ahhhhh, sweet, sweet carbs. You're not eating your dinner sweetie? Give it to Mummy.... Massive injection of salt from soup mix that went on the steak. Tastebuds seem super-charged. Feel like I have swallowed the ocean.

After dinner: Is it 9pm yet? Is it? Is it? Go to kitchen to make LONGED FOR hot chocolate. Chocolate and sugar, sugar and chocolate. One of my few allowances. God bless you Mr Jarrah. Switch on kettle. Hang on a tic...what's that? Oh, its just an ant. Hmm. He's brought some friends. A lot of friends. Cripes! Ant invasion on kitchen bench! I am proud to say I only looked longingly at the hot chocolate mix for 10 seconds then dealt with the pest control issues first. Yay me.

Right, ants gone. Kitchen bench actually clean now. Bonus. Back to making that cuppa. Switch on kettle again.

"Mum?"

Nope, didn't hear it. If I don't hear it, it doesn't exist.

"Mu-um!"

La la la la la la la la la la.....

"MUM!!!"

Auugh. Drag myself to kidlet's bedroom to discover Miss Moo standing in her doorway, feet firmly planted in rapidly expanding puddle of wee. On carpet. Not the tiles 20cm away, but the cream carpet. Pick up child, place in shower. Return to scene of the crime and spot clean. Return to child and spot clean. Return child to bed. Return to kitchen. Switch on kettle for third time.

Look over my shoulder. No kids. Look over my other shoulder. No ants. Right - ACTION! Cuppa made (and half of favourite TV show missed, aughh) rear in chair, bliss.

It's only 2 and a half hours late...

Cheers,
Lizzie

Ode To A Sick Husband

(Another drag-over from the old Lizzie's Desk blog. This one was originally posted May 26th, 2006. Beside myself over my husband's then-constant bout of sickness (a lovely gift leftover from his days with glandular fever), coupled with my freakish ability to personify the whole 'I'm rubber and you're glue' mentality when it comes to germs (in that nothing ever 'sticks' to me, but burrows deep and catches root in HIM, therefore rendering me a perpetual nursemaid), I penned this frustrated little ditty...)

(*sung to the tune of Good King Wenceslas)

Good wives all around the world
Prepare yourselves for cleaning
When the bowls lay all about
Waiting for the heaving
Brightly shone the bathroom light
Though the air was foul
"Honey, can you come here quick, I think I need a to-ow-el!"

Some will come but most will run
You look like Death on To-oast
With bloodshot eyes and dripping nose
Don’t try to play the host
Broadly grinned the wise doctor
His pockets lined with go-old
And you’ll be wishing for the days
Before this blasted cold!

(Update: my husband, God bless his cotton socks, hasn't had a terrible bout of sickness like this for at least a year. Those that have had glandular fever (mono) will attest it lingers like a bad smell, and can cause all sorts of long-term problems. Hubs, naturally, is one of those unfortunate few for whom mono wreaks havoc on the immune system and so generally speaking, if someone in China has a sniffle, he'll come down with pneumonia the next day. To paint a picture, in one 14 mo period he had tonsilitis four or five times. Catching every bug around was how it was for at least three years after the mono, but for some strange reason, he's had a good run over the past few seasons with no major issues. But we all still panic when he sneezes!)

Cheers,
Lizzie

A New Addition

(For your reading amusement, the post below was originally published on October 14, 2006 on the predecessor of Lizzie's Home, Lizzie's Desk. I know, imaginative! This was way before the blogging bug bit and thus I only lasted seven or so posts there, which I'll slowly drag over here to preserve for posterity before deleting Desk. You know, for the sake of simplicity and all that. Enjoy!)

Something very momentus has happened since I last posted. A new addition to the family has arrived, at first all shiny and new but now covered with fingerprints. I am up at all hours, like any new parent, feeding and playing with the cute little thing. Last thing at night I pack its little bag ready for the next day's adventures, swaddle my baby, and at last lay it down to sleep.

I bought a laptop.

In the days between when I placed my order and when the blessed thing arrived, I paced the halls like any expectant parent. I warned the other children - the real ones - to be careful of Mama's new baby. I chose where it would sleep (at the end of the dining room table for starters). In short, I nested.

My Computer Guy arrived with laptop in tow, took it out of it's cardboard womb, smacked its metaphorical bottom (pressed the power button) and then graciously let me check that all digits were present and accounted for. A full set of QWERTYs. I was so proud.

I prompty set about transfering data via USB flash drive from geriatric computer (my baby's grandfather?) to the willing hard drive of my new obsession. I discovered, for example, that I had five flash drive-fuls of documents, spreadsheets, photos and mp3s stashed in the bowels of the old codger, who obviously needed a good purge. It was then that we realised we'd forgotten a few key accessories, so the next day, with sunlight barely breaking over the function keys, we went shopping.

Officeworks is the computer equivalent to the baby section at Toys R Us. We oohed and ahhed over the cute little flash drives (mine is a little chunky), the stylish leather backpacks and row upon row of peripherals - speakers and modems and games. Oh my.

With serious restraint, we purchased just two things - Microsoft Office 2003 and a wireless router so Baby could talk to her grandfather from across the room without life support. After all, the old guy had been around the traps and considering he was the only link to the printer, was probably still useful. "Back in the day, I ran on Windows 95! None of this new-fangled XP business! And broadband? It took us forty minutes to download a single mp3 and we were darn proud of ourselves too! You little whipper-snappers wouldn't know the real meaning of hard work!"

Computer Guy returned to the 'delivery room' the next day to fiddle with mysterious computer things inside Grandpa - poor thing - and finally pronounced "You have internet!" I marvelled at the ability to wirelessly transfer in 1 second what had taken me five trips with the flash drive.

For a few days, all was well. Grandpa and Baby were getting along just fine, and their handlers (myself and DH) were having a grand old time instant messaging each other from across the room. Then, like an old dog upset over the extra attention their owner is giving the new puppy, Grandpa somehow convinced the wireless router to commit suicide. Baby hasn't talked to Grandpa since, and Grandpa is happily humming to himself over in his corner, knowing he has the monopoly on the internet once again.

Baby remains otherwise happy to please her Mama, with Outlook's calendar function being a constant source of amusement to me. I'm feeling rather corporate seing my daily schedule pop up over my morning cup of tea, even if the entries contain mostly household chores. I spent an entire afternoon figuring out the difference between a 'task' and an 'appointment'. There's a freakish appeal to scheduling the unloading of the dishwasher.

The nasty little wireless router will be packed off to the D-Link farm in the sky (manufacturer's headquarters) next week and we're adopting a new orphan from Routeramibia as soon as the relevent authorities recognise the request. Apparently they're slightly suspicious of the sudden demise of our first adoptee. Perhaps after that Baby can once again take up her position as Queen Bee of this rainbow cyber family of ours.

In the meantime, I'm blaming Grandpa.

(For the record, poor Grandpa recently went to the Great Recycle Heap in the Sky, and was replaced by a new-fangled widescreen desktop. RIP Grandpa. You served us faithfully...if not a little slowly!)

Cheers,
Lizzie

Bits & Pieces

Master J had a friend over this afternoon. This doesn't happen very often (through a combination of reasons, the least of which is that his disability often precludes close friendships). The boys had a ball, but gosh, were they loud, LOL.

I spent the early part of the day before the visit doing a little housework. I was rushing around a bit, which isn't the most relaxing way to spend a Sunday, but this was the first time this family was to visit our home and I wanted to make sure things were up to par. Meaning at the very least, the dishes were done, LOL.

I haven't done very well this week with the healthy eating plan. In actual fact, I was moderately okay for two days then fell on my face. I'm still trying to decide whether I have the extra energy and time I need to get my head in the right 'space' for this, or whether it's better to wait until I have a handle on more pressing matters, like study or housework. But then I think, no time will be the 'right' time. Sigh. Boofah just came to me bored because he couldn't figure out whether he wanted to build a block city or write a poem (yes, he's a born writer, and Mama couldn't be happier, LOL). Oh, if only all of life's decisions were that easy!

Tomorrow Boofah and Miss Moo return to school after a three day weekend and Daddy is working dayshift, so there'll be just J and I at home. Poppa is calling through to pick up some things at lunchtime but I'm hoping I can nail this last niggly assignment once and for all. It really has been a huge stumbling block and I know that once its out of the way I'll be better off, but I'm dragging my feet something shocking and that simple act of procrastination is filtering through into other areas. Every time I sit down to do a project of some sort I think to myself, if I have time for this, I have time to study. Twelve weeks to go folks. Twelve slow, agonizing weeks. Wish me luck.

I'm actually thinking I may have to go on a blog break, and it totally pains me to say that, but it sort of needs to happen. I'm fighting this with all my might though. I like the surge in page hits when I participate in carnivals and I don't like to miss those. Plus, I keep following links on others' blogrolls and wind up with ten new 'will keep an eye on these' blogs each time I work my way through my Favourite Blogs list. This is a problem. But its so hard to stop reading new blogs. My interests come and go and so do the blogs on my Favourites list, and I kind of figure there's no point to having a link on a blogroll when I no longer visit that site regularly (for whatever reason). And I continually come back to blogs I've previously deleted from my list just because I rediscover them through someone else's blog, LOL.

Well, I have a leg of lamb in the oven and I need to go and peel some spuds before I pass that critical Potato Insertion Point (everyone knows what I'm talking about, right? The point at which, if you miss it, by the time the roast is cooked the potatoes remain undercooked? Yes, I have entirely too much time on my hands...)

The funny thing is, at least two of the children will announce they don't like lamb the second they sit down at the table...

Cheers,
Lizzie

Happy Homemaking ~ A Good Attitude

(© Susan Rios, "Content By The Sea")

I’ve had a horrible day. I have a tummy-ache, the kids are in their most atrocious, loud form, and Hubs has plunked himself down in front of the computer, completely ignoring the ever-growing mound of dishes I’ve been unable to load into the dishwasher because bending down hurts like I’ve been kicked by a horse.

Hang on a minute.

Did you see what just happened then? It wasn’t my various aches and pains, an inconsiderate husband (he’s not, for the record!) or my high-decibel children that ruined my day.

It was my attitude.

You might be wondering why I’ve chosen to start off this series on Attitude and not Menu Planning, Budgeting or Housekeeping. After all, meals, finances and housework are a homekeeper’s bread and butter, aren’t they? And when they’re all going smoothly, you’re happier, right? That’s the first mistake most people make. The first thing you need to adjust isn't the meals you serve or the money you spend. It's your attitude.

Let’s look at two examples:

Sarah’s husband works long hours every day at a job he hates, but he does it because ‘that’s just what husbands do’. Despite the hard-earned income, Sarah is resentful of the time he spends away from home, and more specifically, for his inability to help with the housework she hasn’t had a chance to get around to. After all, she’s had a horrible day too. After the children went off to school she checked her emails for an hour, instant-messaged two other friends, and went out for lunch. She was even waiting half an hour for her meal to arrive! By the time she got home, it was virtually time to pick up the children again. As soon as they’d all stepped foot inside the house, the noise started. Snacks, attention, reading, paperwork from the school – it was all so exhausting, she’d had to lie down for a nap. She’d risen at five minutes to six and thrown some sort of frozen meal into the oven to cook. There won’t be any vegetables for dinner tonight because she hasn’t got the energy to peel/slice/grate whatever lurks at the bottom of her refrigerator. When her husband gets home, looking stressed and dragging his feet, Sarah greets him with a grunt. The look she gives him when he spies the unwashed breakfast dishes and crazy children is one of “Don’t you dare ask me what I’ve done all day.”

Oh my.

(If you couldn’t see anything wrong with the above example, then you’re in the wrong place. Swing on by one of the gazillion feminist blogs. Nothing I say now (or in the following eleven parts of this series) will make a lick of sense to you – in actual fact you’ll probably end up alternatively shaking your head, laughing and pitying my ‘dark-ages’ attitude. Run. Run now. Before any of this ‘Happy Homemaking’ stuff rubs off on you, LOL)

Many of us go through life in a perpetual state of ‘What if..?’ What if I just replaced those grubby sofas in the living room? What if I could buy that costly outfit? What if we moved into a more expensive neighbourhood? We seem to think that if we just had those things, then life would be easier, better, more enjoyable, less stressful. We’d have ‘arrived’. But arrived where? Bone-crushing Debtville? Happiness isn’t reflected in the balance of one’s bank account. Rather, we choose to be happy, and how we do that is all about attitude.

Let’s meet our second homemaker.

Samantha rises early and throws on a load of laundry in between waking the children and preparing breakfast. She packs her husband a lunch and sends him off with a smile, a kiss and an “I’ll miss you.” The kids are eager to help clean up after breakfast and each gets ready for school (or homeschool) without a single grumble. Samantha’s day is filled with cleaning, baking, sewing and preparing the evening meal. Because she rose early to get a head start on these things, she has time in the afternoon to work on her own projects, and today she has decided to potter about in the garden. After the children finish school, there’s a healthy snack waiting for them. Afterwards, there are stories with each child and each finds something quiet to do while Samantha puts the finishing touches on dinner. When her husband walks in the door, weary after his long day, he glances around to find a clean kitchen, quiet, happy children, freshly cut flowers from his own garden and a beautiful, well put-together, smiling wife holding out a cup of tea (or a cold drink!) His tough day instantly forgotten, the family collapses onto the sofa for a cuddle and a discussion about the events of the day before sitting down to a nicely set table and a simple, tasty meal.

In Philippians, Paul encourages us to be content wherever we are, and with whatever we are given. It’s all about attitude.

Sarah already hated her day before her feet even hit the floor. All she could see in front of her was a day full of dreary, never-ending work, children who were too loud and a husband who was unappreciative of her ‘efforts’ and seemed to be stuck in a perpetually sour mood. Why bother when that was all that awaited her?

Samantha, on the other hand, saw her time at home as a way to show love to the people around her. She remained grateful and thankful that her husband’s hard work and their good budgeting skills allowed her the option to stay at home while so many of the women she met felt they had to work in order to sustain a lifestyle that ultimately saw neither spouse spend enough time with each other or the children.

Though Sarah and Samantha’s husbands worked the same hours and earned the same amount, which do you think was the richer family?

Though it may sound a tad trite, you are in control of your own attitude. You can choose to look at your role at home with frustration and resentment or you can get a kick out of serving those around you. If the laundry is piling up, remember that for some, a second or third change of clothing is a luxury. If you are frustrated with your outdated, mismatched furniture, remember those who sit on rocks and sleep on dirt.

Suddenly feel really thankful for what you have? I know I do.

Links: If you need a reminder...

Cheers,
Lizzie