I am dying. A slow, miserable death involving a wracking cough (severe enough to rattle one's brain and strain stomach muscles), cold sweats and green phlegm. I can't remember if having green phlegm is good or bad. At this point I don't care.
Last night most of my muscles started screaming in frustration - I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Standing up for more than five minutes actually hurt. And then this morning, before I'd even sat up, I knew it was going to be a horrible day. And so far? Spot on. So not only do we all have to endure the heat but I'm also running on about an eighth of a tank, energy-wise. This afternoon we're going to drag out our old best friend - Pixar.
And I'm not even going to feel guilty about it.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Who Gets A Chest Cold In The Middle Of A Heat Wave?
Okay, so on top of the heat, I've developed a funny chesty kind of niggle, the kind you get the day before realising you've caught a cold.
A cold. Are you kidding me?
The rest of my city (and much of south-eastern Australia in general, including Melbourne) is melting into oblivion, and I catch a cold. Is my middle name Murphy, or what?
Heard from the 'school mums' this morning that half of my suburb is currently without power, and have been since last night. My state's power company has been on the news in the last couple of days saying they would be doing 'rolling blackouts' (ie, on purpose switching off of certain suburbs for an hour or two at a time) to help ease the strain on the power grid. Folks are burning holes in their pockets you see, with all the airconditioner usage. I don't even want to know what our next bill will be. No, strike that - I DON'T CARE. But this blackout doesn't sound like a rolling stoppage, it sounds like a broken something-or-other (there have been lots of stories of blown transformer thingys in the news this past week) which means the other half (ie, us) of the suburb could be in danger of losing power today too. The school is also in this half. If we lose power, I'll call the school and ask if they've got power and if not, I'll pick up the kids. I have the state's power company's 'current power outtages' webpage up to keep tabs on the situation. There are a LOT of outtages all over the city today. Poor dears. And don't even think of going anywhere on public transport - tram and train lines are buckling (causing massive, massive commuter problems) and buses are sardine-packed with sweaty people.
I've also not been eating very much. Never do when its terribly hot. No energy to prepare real food so what I do eat is snack-type foods and this is obviously not a good situation so today's goal - pretty much the only one - is to eat a proper sandwich. Lofty, isn't it? And it's not like I can't afford to lose a few pounds, but I'd really rather hoped it didn't involve fifteen hours a day of sauna-like conditions!
AND - the icing on the cake - I woke with a cracker headache this morning. You know, just to remind me to be humble, LOL.
It's already around 37ºC (a smidge under 100ºF) and it's only 10am. I am completely obsessed with refreshing the 'past 24 hours' weather page for my city - they update every half hour and with each point of a degree rise I want to curl up and cry my guts out.
I WANT SNOW!
A cold. Are you kidding me?
The rest of my city (and much of south-eastern Australia in general, including Melbourne) is melting into oblivion, and I catch a cold. Is my middle name Murphy, or what?
Heard from the 'school mums' this morning that half of my suburb is currently without power, and have been since last night. My state's power company has been on the news in the last couple of days saying they would be doing 'rolling blackouts' (ie, on purpose switching off of certain suburbs for an hour or two at a time) to help ease the strain on the power grid. Folks are burning holes in their pockets you see, with all the airconditioner usage. I don't even want to know what our next bill will be. No, strike that - I DON'T CARE. But this blackout doesn't sound like a rolling stoppage, it sounds like a broken something-or-other (there have been lots of stories of blown transformer thingys in the news this past week) which means the other half (ie, us) of the suburb could be in danger of losing power today too. The school is also in this half. If we lose power, I'll call the school and ask if they've got power and if not, I'll pick up the kids. I have the state's power company's 'current power outtages' webpage up to keep tabs on the situation. There are a LOT of outtages all over the city today. Poor dears. And don't even think of going anywhere on public transport - tram and train lines are buckling (causing massive, massive commuter problems) and buses are sardine-packed with sweaty people.
I've also not been eating very much. Never do when its terribly hot. No energy to prepare real food so what I do eat is snack-type foods and this is obviously not a good situation so today's goal - pretty much the only one - is to eat a proper sandwich. Lofty, isn't it? And it's not like I can't afford to lose a few pounds, but I'd really rather hoped it didn't involve fifteen hours a day of sauna-like conditions!
AND - the icing on the cake - I woke with a cracker headache this morning. You know, just to remind me to be humble, LOL.
It's already around 37ºC (a smidge under 100ºF) and it's only 10am. I am completely obsessed with refreshing the 'past 24 hours' weather page for my city - they update every half hour and with each point of a degree rise I want to curl up and cry my guts out.
I WANT SNOW!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Heat Wave Rave 2009 ~ Update
I know. You're all sick to death of constant updates about the heat in a city most of you have probably never been to, LOL. Especially since the majority of my readers are from the US, which is shivering through winter at the moment. Meh. It's a bit hard to think of anything else at the moment.
Yesterday's 45.7ºC was the third hottest day on record here in my city and the hottest in over 70 years. Last night we had our hottest overnight minimum temp - ever - officially at 33.9ºC, but most of the night it hovered around 35ºC.
You may go back to your regularly scheduled programs now.
I promise this incessant whingeing won't last. I will be back to my normal self as soon as the guage drops below thirty. Thankyou and good night.
Yesterday's 45.7ºC was the third hottest day on record here in my city and the hottest in over 70 years. Last night we had our hottest overnight minimum temp - ever - officially at 33.9ºC, but most of the night it hovered around 35ºC.
You may go back to your regularly scheduled programs now.
I promise this incessant whingeing won't last. I will be back to my normal self as soon as the guage drops below thirty. Thankyou and good night.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The One Where Lizzie Could Fry An Egg On The Footpath. Or, You Know, Her Forehead
Wretched, wretched heat!
We knew we were in for a scorcher here in my city today. At a projected 44ºC (111ºF) the day was looking grim from the get-go. It was already into the forties by 10:00. That's okay, I told myself foolishly. I can handle this.
Talented Hubby (who really should be grateful he's not working this week) and I did absolutely diddly-squat all day long. After seeing the kids off to school, our day involved napping on the couch (me) and the Playstation (him). It was just too hot to bother with anything else.
And yet, the mercury kept climbing.
Out of morbid fascination I bookmarked my city's official weather page and hit refresh every time I passed the laptop so I could keep tabs on the current conditions. At 2:30 we were at 44.9ºC (almost 113ºF). Yesterday's maximum of 43.2ºC (almost 110ºF) was the hottest day in five years - and we'd already passed that figure hours ago.
And every time I hit refresh, the numbers were rising.
I had to leave the house at 3:15 to pick up the kids from school. We live a mere five minutes' walk away but I was a puddle before I'd walked four steps beyond our driveway. By the time we got home, the kids were basically hyperventilating and I was a MESS. There is no delicate way to say this - I was dripping sweat from every crevice on my body. And trust me, I have a lot of crevices!
Later in the afternoon I checked the weather website again - 45.1ºC (over 113ºF). At the EXACT time we were walking home. No wonder I was sweaty! Oh dear God, it was brutal. We thought we'd reached the peak of the day then...but no, the 6 o'clock news later had the maximum for today recorded at 45.7ºC (114ºF plus). At 6:30 it was still 44ºC (111ºF). Yeowch!
I want to kick and scream and throw a tantrum like a little kid. My head hurts too much though. Boof told me on the way home from school this afternoon - you know, when we were in the midst of heat stroke - that anything over 44.4ºC (about 112ºF) would have broken a SEVENTY year record in our city for the hottest day. Methinks 45.7ºC qualifies!
And you know what the BEST part of this is? It's going to be 44ºC again tomorrow. And the day after. And maybe even Saturday. Then the 'cool change' comes in, with temps around 37-38ºC (100ºF) for another three or four days. *SOB*.
June, your comment on yesterday's post? The one where you casually threw out that your temperature was MINUS TEN FREAKIN' DEGREES CELSIUS? I think I hate you.
I'm just sayin'.
I'm going to go cry now.
We knew we were in for a scorcher here in my city today. At a projected 44ºC (111ºF) the day was looking grim from the get-go. It was already into the forties by 10:00. That's okay, I told myself foolishly. I can handle this.
Talented Hubby (who really should be grateful he's not working this week) and I did absolutely diddly-squat all day long. After seeing the kids off to school, our day involved napping on the couch (me) and the Playstation (him). It was just too hot to bother with anything else.
And yet, the mercury kept climbing.
Out of morbid fascination I bookmarked my city's official weather page and hit refresh every time I passed the laptop so I could keep tabs on the current conditions. At 2:30 we were at 44.9ºC (almost 113ºF). Yesterday's maximum of 43.2ºC (almost 110ºF) was the hottest day in five years - and we'd already passed that figure hours ago.
And every time I hit refresh, the numbers were rising.
I had to leave the house at 3:15 to pick up the kids from school. We live a mere five minutes' walk away but I was a puddle before I'd walked four steps beyond our driveway. By the time we got home, the kids were basically hyperventilating and I was a MESS. There is no delicate way to say this - I was dripping sweat from every crevice on my body. And trust me, I have a lot of crevices!
Later in the afternoon I checked the weather website again - 45.1ºC (over 113ºF). At the EXACT time we were walking home. No wonder I was sweaty! Oh dear God, it was brutal. We thought we'd reached the peak of the day then...but no, the 6 o'clock news later had the maximum for today recorded at 45.7ºC (114ºF plus). At 6:30 it was still 44ºC (111ºF). Yeowch!
I want to kick and scream and throw a tantrum like a little kid. My head hurts too much though. Boof told me on the way home from school this afternoon - you know, when we were in the midst of heat stroke - that anything over 44.4ºC (about 112ºF) would have broken a SEVENTY year record in our city for the hottest day. Methinks 45.7ºC qualifies!
And you know what the BEST part of this is? It's going to be 44ºC again tomorrow. And the day after. And maybe even Saturday. Then the 'cool change' comes in, with temps around 37-38ºC (100ºF) for another three or four days. *SOB*.
June, your comment on yesterday's post? The one where you casually threw out that your temperature was MINUS TEN FREAKIN' DEGREES CELSIUS? I think I hate you.
I'm just sayin'.
I'm going to go cry now.
My Logic Will Astound You
Yesterday's projected 41ºC (almost 106ºF) turned into 43.2ºC (almost 110ºF). Does this mean today's projected FORTY-FOUR degree day will actually end up being 46.2ºC (115ºF)? Sigh.
We are a SOUTHERN COASTAL TOWN folks! Not Alice Springs!
I see lots of totally useless lolling about on my horizon. Which, incidentally, is warbling in the heat.
**SOB!**
We are a SOUTHERN COASTAL TOWN folks! Not Alice Springs!
I see lots of totally useless lolling about on my horizon. Which, incidentally, is warbling in the heat.
**SOB!**
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
I Know There Are Probably People Lost In The Sahara Right Now Who Might Disagree With Me, But...
Blech.
Today was HOT. And I should really stress that it wasn't just 'very warm' - it was BY GOLLY THAT METAL PARK BENCH JUST SEARED A GRID ACROSS MY TUSHIE kind of hot. Today my city reached FORTY-THREE-POINT-TWO degrees celcius. To put it into perspective for my overseas friends, that's almost 110ºF, or the hottest day the city has seen in over five years.
Forgive me while I go shower for the third time today.
I am not a fan of hot weather. I could never live in central Australia or anything labelled 'up north', which basically amounts to any town more than two hours directly 'up' from where we are now on a map, which trust me, is near enough to being coastal. Heat seems to seep into my bones and cause me to become a blithering, blubbering mess-o'-couch-potato. I would clearly not do very well in Qatar. After last March's record-breaking fifteen day heat wave (seriously, the kids even got state government issued certificates to commemorate surviving it!) I began formulating fantasy plans to move to Canada. Scattered Mom at Notes From The Cookie Jar and Laura from Org Junkie were putting us up until we could get our snow shoes and dog sled team organized. And then the heat wave broke and I think I cried. Tears of the fiercest and purest joy.
But today? Took me right back to March. Auugh.
The forecast is for much of the same for the rest of the week - temps around 40ºC or 104ºF on the old scale. Nobody can get anything done because we're all too sapped of energy to care. The kids - oh, the poor dears - had to endure their first day back at school today in sweltering heat. They were only allowed out for half of the lunchtime play period - and as for the rest of the time, well, thank God for classroom air-conditioners :)
Apart from that, the return to school for another year went well for all of the Piglets. Boof has a male teacher for the first time ever but already likes him - Mr C has promised to teach the kids how to build a web page which, to a techno-science geek like Boof, is akin to a second Christmas. Moo and her very best friend are in separate classrooms this year after three years together (inc kindergarten). Thankfully she has other good friends in her class and her special friend's classroom is a stone's throw away so they have already promised to meet each other in the yard each playtime :) And J, as usual, had little to say specifically about how his first day went but remains happy in the same special small class (mainstream school) and with the same teacher and support staff.
The school paperwork that came home this first day though...wooo-heee. It took me a solid hour to fill out the forms and read all the notices!
Today was HOT. And I should really stress that it wasn't just 'very warm' - it was BY GOLLY THAT METAL PARK BENCH JUST SEARED A GRID ACROSS MY TUSHIE kind of hot. Today my city reached FORTY-THREE-POINT-TWO degrees celcius. To put it into perspective for my overseas friends, that's almost 110ºF, or the hottest day the city has seen in over five years.
Forgive me while I go shower for the third time today.
I am not a fan of hot weather. I could never live in central Australia or anything labelled 'up north', which basically amounts to any town more than two hours directly 'up' from where we are now on a map, which trust me, is near enough to being coastal. Heat seems to seep into my bones and cause me to become a blithering, blubbering mess-o'-couch-potato. I would clearly not do very well in Qatar. After last March's record-breaking fifteen day heat wave (seriously, the kids even got state government issued certificates to commemorate surviving it!) I began formulating fantasy plans to move to Canada. Scattered Mom at Notes From The Cookie Jar and Laura from Org Junkie were putting us up until we could get our snow shoes and dog sled team organized. And then the heat wave broke and I think I cried. Tears of the fiercest and purest joy.
But today? Took me right back to March. Auugh.
The forecast is for much of the same for the rest of the week - temps around 40ºC or 104ºF on the old scale. Nobody can get anything done because we're all too sapped of energy to care. The kids - oh, the poor dears - had to endure their first day back at school today in sweltering heat. They were only allowed out for half of the lunchtime play period - and as for the rest of the time, well, thank God for classroom air-conditioners :)
Apart from that, the return to school for another year went well for all of the Piglets. Boof has a male teacher for the first time ever but already likes him - Mr C has promised to teach the kids how to build a web page which, to a techno-science geek like Boof, is akin to a second Christmas. Moo and her very best friend are in separate classrooms this year after three years together (inc kindergarten). Thankfully she has other good friends in her class and her special friend's classroom is a stone's throw away so they have already promised to meet each other in the yard each playtime :) And J, as usual, had little to say specifically about how his first day went but remains happy in the same special small class (mainstream school) and with the same teacher and support staff.
The school paperwork that came home this first day though...wooo-heee. It took me a solid hour to fill out the forms and read all the notices!
Monday, January 26, 2009
What Kind Of A Self-Respecting Aussie Eats a Hotdog On Australia Day?
Okay. So it's the last day of the six week Christmas/summer school holidays. Actually, we were meant to return to school today but it's Australia Day (think Fourth of July but with far less hotdogs - although, ironically, this is what's on the menu for us tonight, LOL - and movies about aliens starring Will Smith) so we're off until tomorrow. BTW, Happy (two hundred and) twenty-FIRST birthday, Australia!
When we walk in the doors tomorrow it will be a brand new school year. Master J is going into Grade 5, Boof to Grade 4 and Moo to Grade 2. The first week is always chaotic. There are more notes home in that week than in a whole month during the rest of the year and the annual struggle with covering the kids' notebooks with contact paper must be attempted and triumphed over. We've got new shoes, new haircuts (Moo has gone quite short!) and I'll be baking up a storm today for the lunchbox fodder.
The kids are another week closer to their puppy. After an initial mix up, we'll be picking up a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel pup from the airport around the second week of March, making it about three weeks old now. We're slowly getting ready for the new addition and the kids are getting anxious. Moo has resorted to hooking the puppy lead onto the little stuffed dog Happy Meal (Hotel For Dogs) toy and dragging that around. We're watching Underdog and the Beethoven movies until we're blue in the face and the kids went completely beserk when we took them to see Bolt in the cinema. You can be sure there'll be lots of pointless (but very cute!) "Charlie" pics and videos up in a few weeks :)
I have a TON of baking to get to, several loads of laundry to finish and Breakfast at Tiffany's to watch for the first time. A rather satisfying day, don't you think?
When we walk in the doors tomorrow it will be a brand new school year. Master J is going into Grade 5, Boof to Grade 4 and Moo to Grade 2. The first week is always chaotic. There are more notes home in that week than in a whole month during the rest of the year and the annual struggle with covering the kids' notebooks with contact paper must be attempted and triumphed over. We've got new shoes, new haircuts (Moo has gone quite short!) and I'll be baking up a storm today for the lunchbox fodder.
The kids are another week closer to their puppy. After an initial mix up, we'll be picking up a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel pup from the airport around the second week of March, making it about three weeks old now. We're slowly getting ready for the new addition and the kids are getting anxious. Moo has resorted to hooking the puppy lead onto the little stuffed dog Happy Meal (Hotel For Dogs) toy and dragging that around. We're watching Underdog and the Beethoven movies until we're blue in the face and the kids went completely beserk when we took them to see Bolt in the cinema. You can be sure there'll be lots of pointless (but very cute!) "Charlie" pics and videos up in a few weeks :)
I have a TON of baking to get to, several loads of laundry to finish and Breakfast at Tiffany's to watch for the first time. A rather satisfying day, don't you think?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Lizzie's Link Love
Woohoo! Time to clear out the Link Love folder!
Craft Table For 4 (Ikea Hacker) - I so badly want to do this. So. Very. Badly...
Small Space Solutions: Kitchen Pantry (Small Notebook) - Be still my beating heart! Does this not make you want to go buy glass jars right this second?
Days Of The Week Tags (Living Locurto) - Everyone now and then I stumble across an idea so blindingly obvious it makes my brain hurt. This is one of those times.
24 Tips To Becoming An Early Riser (Life Remix) - For those amongst us struggling to make the most of the morning hours. Like me.
If My Life Was Any More Humourous, It Could Be A Sitcom (Mom To The Screaming Masses) - Sometimes the best way to feel good about your own life is to laugh uproariously at someone else's ironies, LOL. A couple of months old, but totally awesome.
Cindy's Porch (the entire site) - Have you seen this yet? This has been a fave for ages.
Happy clickin'!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
You Know That Accomplished Feeling You Get When You Actually Complete Something?
Ooooh, I'm so excited.
The hard part of cleaning out the spare/gym/junk room is done. The clutter has been removed, the old home gym dismantled (that alone took me three years of negotiation) and our bunk beds - of which Boof occupied the top bunk when he and Moo shared - have been taken apart and reassembled separately in appropriate rooms. I still have to de-bug the room (over three years of being a junk room made it prone to spiders), store some items in the built in robe, make the bed and move all Boof's gear in but it should be finished by tonight, ready to greet him when he arrives home tomorrow (with Moo and J) from a week at his grandparents'.
I wish I had a photo of what it was like a few months ago...I've been beginning (and then stopping) this little declutter project for a good two years now, each time getting ever so slightly closer - a bag for the donation pile here, a few old items in the trash there. You know that scene in Entrapment where Catherine Zeta Jones does that contortionist stuff through the laser beams? That's what it was like getting from one end of the room to the other...no visible carpet! Before I started yesterday it was the best it had ever been but there were still many, many things on the floor and of course, The Behemoth (home gym) took up the rest of the space. The room has a horribly ugly wall frieze with the logo and name of one of my city's football teams (Australian Rules football that is) but Boof begged to keep it, so there it stays. Decluttering this room was very much my 'elephant' and it proves that just about anything can be eaten if taken one bite at a time.
It is so weird to think I'm going to be able to make a bed normally again. I hate making bunks with a passion.
Not much time to post too much else at the moment - just taking a break then popping off to the supermarket to pick up a few things before Talented Hubby goes to work. The sweet man isn't feeling well today but still stopped to take the gym apart and help me move the top bunk in.
Me? I've got an evening filled with good music and rearranging/organizing to do - amazingly, I'm looking forward to it.
The hard part of cleaning out the spare/gym/junk room is done. The clutter has been removed, the old home gym dismantled (that alone took me three years of negotiation) and our bunk beds - of which Boof occupied the top bunk when he and Moo shared - have been taken apart and reassembled separately in appropriate rooms. I still have to de-bug the room (over three years of being a junk room made it prone to spiders), store some items in the built in robe, make the bed and move all Boof's gear in but it should be finished by tonight, ready to greet him when he arrives home tomorrow (with Moo and J) from a week at his grandparents'.
I wish I had a photo of what it was like a few months ago...I've been beginning (and then stopping) this little declutter project for a good two years now, each time getting ever so slightly closer - a bag for the donation pile here, a few old items in the trash there. You know that scene in Entrapment where Catherine Zeta Jones does that contortionist stuff through the laser beams? That's what it was like getting from one end of the room to the other...no visible carpet! Before I started yesterday it was the best it had ever been but there were still many, many things on the floor and of course, The Behemoth (home gym) took up the rest of the space. The room has a horribly ugly wall frieze with the logo and name of one of my city's football teams (Australian Rules football that is) but Boof begged to keep it, so there it stays. Decluttering this room was very much my 'elephant' and it proves that just about anything can be eaten if taken one bite at a time.
It is so weird to think I'm going to be able to make a bed normally again. I hate making bunks with a passion.
Not much time to post too much else at the moment - just taking a break then popping off to the supermarket to pick up a few things before Talented Hubby goes to work. The sweet man isn't feeling well today but still stopped to take the gym apart and help me move the top bunk in.
Me? I've got an evening filled with good music and rearranging/organizing to do - amazingly, I'm looking forward to it.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
After 3½ Years, It Might Actually Get Done
I'm psyching myself up for a big declutter project today.
We purposely bought this house because it had four bedrooms and there are five of us (thankfully, two are adults and share). But on moving day, we kind of just shoved a bunk bed into the front room and claimed the fourth bedroom as our gym/junk room. It has remained that way ever since.
It was okay for the first couple of years. Boof and Moo get along pretty good despite being brother and sister and Boof just accepted the purple wallpaper as a fact of life and eventually ignored it (it's a very girly room). But in the last year, the cracks began to show. They're 8½ and 7 now, a bit old to be sharing when there's a perfectly good room down the hall.
It's time folks. It's time.
The kids are at their grandparents until Friday - the perfect time to switch things around as a surprise. But to get to that point we first have to uber-declutter and that means making snap decisions. We are not good at snap decisions. Hence a room full of odds and ends and boxes of old clothes! We made a small start yesterday, dropping off three bags of clothes and various small household items to the Salvation Army. But there's so much to do.
Nothing to do but dive in!
We purposely bought this house because it had four bedrooms and there are five of us (thankfully, two are adults and share). But on moving day, we kind of just shoved a bunk bed into the front room and claimed the fourth bedroom as our gym/junk room. It has remained that way ever since.
It was okay for the first couple of years. Boof and Moo get along pretty good despite being brother and sister and Boof just accepted the purple wallpaper as a fact of life and eventually ignored it (it's a very girly room). But in the last year, the cracks began to show. They're 8½ and 7 now, a bit old to be sharing when there's a perfectly good room down the hall.
It's time folks. It's time.
The kids are at their grandparents until Friday - the perfect time to switch things around as a surprise. But to get to that point we first have to uber-declutter and that means making snap decisions. We are not good at snap decisions. Hence a room full of odds and ends and boxes of old clothes! We made a small start yesterday, dropping off three bags of clothes and various small household items to the Salvation Army. But there's so much to do.
Nothing to do but dive in!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Quest For Simplicity ~ Keep It Simple Silly!
I am a procrastinator from way back. I’m always late for something, haven’t finished something or urgently need to do something. In an effort to clean up my act, I make schedules, lists and routines ad nauseum. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t - I’m a big fan of certain components of Flylady, such as the Morning and Evening Routines, and I can definitely see the value in having a basic run down of each day in list form, but I’ve recently discovered something rather important about myself.
I like to over-complicate matters. I’m an ‘on paper perfectionist’.
In my quest to simplify my life this year – which included a ‘backward shift’ for Lizzie’s Home from Wordpress to Blogger – I’ve decided to try something new. Instead of attacking a rearrangement of my Basic Daily Plan in my usual manner (noting each task next to an (albeit rough) time, making the page look pretty and so on), I sat down to think first. I thought about all the things that frustrate me at the moment – all the things I don’t have the time to do, the areas I’d like to improve in, the parts of ‘life’ that are most important to me. This is what I came up with:
Rise Early
I’m not a morning person. Getting up early hurts my brain. But on the days when I am forced up early and actually use that time constructively (like putting on an early load of laundry) instead of wasting it (like switching on the computer) it makes a big difference to how my day turns out. Take this week for example. We’re in the middle of a hot Australian summer, with temperatures forecast near 35ºC (95ºF) all week. Hanging the wash at midday – even at 9am really – isn’t a pleasant experience. Ten minutes outside can raise a sweat. Those same ten minutes at 7am? Very do-able.
A Calm Start To The School Day
We don’t homeschool, so we have that crazy period between wake up and the bell to contend with. Our eldest, J, goes to school a few suburbs over and is picked up by taxi around 7:45. Thanks to my Evening Routine I can have him up, fed, dressed and with brushed teeth in 15-20 minutes, but it doesn’t make for a very smooth start to the day. Boof and Moo aren’t walked to school until almost an hour later, leaving us with a false sense of security after the previous rush and we are often still a couple of minutes late despite living just five minutes away. The kids will now all be woken at 7am, and all will get ready for class at the same time, instead of staggered as it happens now. We can always chill out with a book if we wind up with extra time at the end.
Getting A Head Start On Dinner
I have a problem with the dinnertime meal. First, if I don’t plan a menu and shop according to that plan, I’m toast. But I’ll put off meal prep for as long as possible – either caught up in the usual dramas of daily life, or just being lazy – and as a result we’re eating later than either Talented Hubby or I would prefer. I noticed a few gals in Bloggityville set aside a portion of time in the morning to do dinner prep (sometimes through to completion) and then just bring it all together later at mealtime. Sounds like a great idea to me, so I’m building it into my day.
The ‘Six List’ and Eating That Frog
I’ve already mentioned that I’m a ‘list person’. My problem is knowing when to stop adding to the list, LOL. The longer it gets, the less likely it is to be completed and the worse I feel when it isn’t. Then I stumbled across a cool new-to-me blog, Like a Warm Cup of Coffee, which reminded me about a tip I’d heard a while back – The Six List. The idea is to keep your To Do list down to just the six most important items. I tried it yesterday and managed to complete everything for the first time in months. I went a step further with it and also incorporated a ‘frog’ by marking that item with an asterisk. You might have heard about this – the ‘frog’ is the task that is the most tedious, would take the longest, or is something that just needs to get done first - basically, whatever is your biggest procrastination trigger. It stems from an old Mark Twain quote: “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” My frog yesterday was ironing a week’s worth of Talented Hubby’s business shirts. Once that was done, everything else went pretty smoothly!
Time To Create
I’m very much a girly-girl and I adore pretty things, especially gorgeous things for the home. I would love to be able to devote some regular time to updating my skills in the areas of sewing, baking and decorating – but I just haven’t rated them highly enough before to set aside time to do it. The ‘other stuff’ of running a household always takes precedence over the ‘pretties’ but by getting up earlier and really working at the housework in the mornings, my afternoons will be relatively free. Our mothers and grandmothers knew all about this approach :)
Supervising Homework
In the general craziness that is the after-school/dinner prep period, it is very easy for a non-homeschooling mum to miss out on some important instructional time. My kids are at that age now where they all have a little homework to do each night (at the very least, some reading) so this returns as a priority.
‘Last Call’ Laundry Round
If I’ve followed my own guidelines properly, then I’ll have washed and hung a load of laundry, and started another, by 7am. The second load is hung when I return from dropping the kids off at school and if needed (it will vary) a third is started and then hung as part of my housework block later in the morning. All three loads (if I haven’t already brought the first one or two in) should be in, folded or hung and put away by the late afternoon. This is also the time I’ll iron a few things. We’re pretty easy going folk and folding or hanging directly from the line instead of leaving things to wrinkle in baskets pretty much reduces our ironing to hardly anything. As I wash and iron my husband’s (damp) shirts all in one hit at the beginning of his work week, the ironing pile should never have more than two or three items in it per day - very easily taken care of then and there. Getting all the wash in and put away is a big problem for me, LOL.
Kitchen Clean Up
I hate cleaning the kitchen. Blech. I hate the feeling of having just finished a lovely meal and knowing I have to get up immediately afterward to scrape plates and load the dishwasher. But I hate the sight of dirty dishes at 9pm – or even midnight! – a lot worse. I have to train my brain (and my body, LOL) to suck it up and just get it done.
No Snooze? You Lose
If I am not a morning person then its because I am 100% night owl. I’m up late, not really doing much, perhaps a little last minute school day prep that I hadn’t done earlier when I should have. Wasting time on the internet. Just pottering really. I need to break this habit. Sometimes I’ll be watching television but plenty of times I could be in and out of the shower and in bed by 10:30 if I really tried. This needs to be a priority if I’m ever going to make a 6am wake up call. As we speak I am currently campaigning Talented Hubby for TiVo - which has only been around down here for a few months - for Valentine's Day/Wedding Anniversary/Mother's Day. I won't kid myself into thinking I will watch less television - I'll probably watch more, LOL - but I can watch my favourite shows on my schedule...and still make it to bed early.
And there you have it. These are my priorities for each day for the coming school year (which begins in a week down here - eek!) Fingers crossed!
For more participants in Motivate Me Monday, drop in at my new favourite blog, Like A Warm Cup of Coffee (hi Sarah Mae!)
I like to over-complicate matters. I’m an ‘on paper perfectionist’.
In my quest to simplify my life this year – which included a ‘backward shift’ for Lizzie’s Home from Wordpress to Blogger – I’ve decided to try something new. Instead of attacking a rearrangement of my Basic Daily Plan in my usual manner (noting each task next to an (albeit rough) time, making the page look pretty and so on), I sat down to think first. I thought about all the things that frustrate me at the moment – all the things I don’t have the time to do, the areas I’d like to improve in, the parts of ‘life’ that are most important to me. This is what I came up with:
Rise Early
I’m not a morning person. Getting up early hurts my brain. But on the days when I am forced up early and actually use that time constructively (like putting on an early load of laundry) instead of wasting it (like switching on the computer) it makes a big difference to how my day turns out. Take this week for example. We’re in the middle of a hot Australian summer, with temperatures forecast near 35ºC (95ºF) all week. Hanging the wash at midday – even at 9am really – isn’t a pleasant experience. Ten minutes outside can raise a sweat. Those same ten minutes at 7am? Very do-able.
A Calm Start To The School Day
We don’t homeschool, so we have that crazy period between wake up and the bell to contend with. Our eldest, J, goes to school a few suburbs over and is picked up by taxi around 7:45. Thanks to my Evening Routine I can have him up, fed, dressed and with brushed teeth in 15-20 minutes, but it doesn’t make for a very smooth start to the day. Boof and Moo aren’t walked to school until almost an hour later, leaving us with a false sense of security after the previous rush and we are often still a couple of minutes late despite living just five minutes away. The kids will now all be woken at 7am, and all will get ready for class at the same time, instead of staggered as it happens now. We can always chill out with a book if we wind up with extra time at the end.
Getting A Head Start On Dinner
I have a problem with the dinnertime meal. First, if I don’t plan a menu and shop according to that plan, I’m toast. But I’ll put off meal prep for as long as possible – either caught up in the usual dramas of daily life, or just being lazy – and as a result we’re eating later than either Talented Hubby or I would prefer. I noticed a few gals in Bloggityville set aside a portion of time in the morning to do dinner prep (sometimes through to completion) and then just bring it all together later at mealtime. Sounds like a great idea to me, so I’m building it into my day.
The ‘Six List’ and Eating That Frog
I’ve already mentioned that I’m a ‘list person’. My problem is knowing when to stop adding to the list, LOL. The longer it gets, the less likely it is to be completed and the worse I feel when it isn’t. Then I stumbled across a cool new-to-me blog, Like a Warm Cup of Coffee, which reminded me about a tip I’d heard a while back – The Six List. The idea is to keep your To Do list down to just the six most important items. I tried it yesterday and managed to complete everything for the first time in months. I went a step further with it and also incorporated a ‘frog’ by marking that item with an asterisk. You might have heard about this – the ‘frog’ is the task that is the most tedious, would take the longest, or is something that just needs to get done first - basically, whatever is your biggest procrastination trigger. It stems from an old Mark Twain quote: “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” My frog yesterday was ironing a week’s worth of Talented Hubby’s business shirts. Once that was done, everything else went pretty smoothly!
Time To Create
I’m very much a girly-girl and I adore pretty things, especially gorgeous things for the home. I would love to be able to devote some regular time to updating my skills in the areas of sewing, baking and decorating – but I just haven’t rated them highly enough before to set aside time to do it. The ‘other stuff’ of running a household always takes precedence over the ‘pretties’ but by getting up earlier and really working at the housework in the mornings, my afternoons will be relatively free. Our mothers and grandmothers knew all about this approach :)
Supervising Homework
In the general craziness that is the after-school/dinner prep period, it is very easy for a non-homeschooling mum to miss out on some important instructional time. My kids are at that age now where they all have a little homework to do each night (at the very least, some reading) so this returns as a priority.
‘Last Call’ Laundry Round
If I’ve followed my own guidelines properly, then I’ll have washed and hung a load of laundry, and started another, by 7am. The second load is hung when I return from dropping the kids off at school and if needed (it will vary) a third is started and then hung as part of my housework block later in the morning. All three loads (if I haven’t already brought the first one or two in) should be in, folded or hung and put away by the late afternoon. This is also the time I’ll iron a few things. We’re pretty easy going folk and folding or hanging directly from the line instead of leaving things to wrinkle in baskets pretty much reduces our ironing to hardly anything. As I wash and iron my husband’s (damp) shirts all in one hit at the beginning of his work week, the ironing pile should never have more than two or three items in it per day - very easily taken care of then and there. Getting all the wash in and put away is a big problem for me, LOL.
Kitchen Clean Up
I hate cleaning the kitchen. Blech. I hate the feeling of having just finished a lovely meal and knowing I have to get up immediately afterward to scrape plates and load the dishwasher. But I hate the sight of dirty dishes at 9pm – or even midnight! – a lot worse. I have to train my brain (and my body, LOL) to suck it up and just get it done.
No Snooze? You Lose
If I am not a morning person then its because I am 100% night owl. I’m up late, not really doing much, perhaps a little last minute school day prep that I hadn’t done earlier when I should have. Wasting time on the internet. Just pottering really. I need to break this habit. Sometimes I’ll be watching television but plenty of times I could be in and out of the shower and in bed by 10:30 if I really tried. This needs to be a priority if I’m ever going to make a 6am wake up call. As we speak I am currently campaigning Talented Hubby for TiVo - which has only been around down here for a few months - for Valentine's Day/Wedding Anniversary/Mother's Day. I won't kid myself into thinking I will watch less television - I'll probably watch more, LOL - but I can watch my favourite shows on my schedule...and still make it to bed early.
And there you have it. These are my priorities for each day for the coming school year (which begins in a week down here - eek!) Fingers crossed!
For more participants in Motivate Me Monday, drop in at my new favourite blog, Like A Warm Cup of Coffee (hi Sarah Mae!)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
I Need A Drink (Of Something Non-Alcoholic Of Course!)
If you've read about my little Wordpress Mutiny and have followed me over - I LOVE YOU.
Think I'm joking? I do.
Bear with me as I fix, well, pretty much everything.
Normality soon. Perhaps.
Think I'm joking? I do.
Bear with me as I fix, well, pretty much everything.
Normality soon. Perhaps.
Friday, January 9, 2009
I Might Just Be The Last Person Alive To See This Movie
Several weeks before Christmas, Master J was gifted High School Musical 2 on DVD at a special needs kids Christmas party. As we had not seen the first one - shameful, I know - we were waiting until we could rent it before watching J’s new movie.
As predicted, the boys started to go cross-eyed about three-quarters of the way in but my very ‘girly-girl’ Miss Moo stared wide-eyed at the screen the entire time. I do believe we have a convert, folks!
And then - good grief - we had to sit through the DVD’s special features, including the dance moves. That’s when J jumped back into the fray. Boof, turned off by the obvious romantic interest between the two main stars, and who had began rolling his eyes since about sixteen minutes in, declined to join in the impromptu show.
For that I am grateful because, um - Master J cannot dance and two children attempting to do so would have just multiplied the horror, LOL.
It’s a fun kind of movie but THOSE SONGS ARE STUCK IN MY HEAD. I am hoping some of you seasoned HSMers will have tips on how to get rid of the endless loop of “Bop To The Top” now playing inside my brain. At eleven.
Disney, you slay me with your saccharin-sweetness. Sigh.
As predicted, the boys started to go cross-eyed about three-quarters of the way in but my very ‘girly-girl’ Miss Moo stared wide-eyed at the screen the entire time. I do believe we have a convert, folks!
And then - good grief - we had to sit through the DVD’s special features, including the dance moves. That’s when J jumped back into the fray. Boof, turned off by the obvious romantic interest between the two main stars, and who had began rolling his eyes since about sixteen minutes in, declined to join in the impromptu show.
For that I am grateful because, um - Master J cannot dance and two children attempting to do so would have just multiplied the horror, LOL.
It’s a fun kind of movie but THOSE SONGS ARE STUCK IN MY HEAD. I am hoping some of you seasoned HSMers will have tips on how to get rid of the endless loop of “Bop To The Top” now playing inside my brain. At eleven.
Disney, you slay me with your saccharin-sweetness. Sigh.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Miss Moo, Big Girl Riding
The camera I received for my birthday in October takes video as well and, as we’ve never had a video camera before, I will admit that I have become a little snap-happy with the awesomeness of that particular feature. But it was bothering me that I couldn’t post my little snippets of daily life because the file sizes were ginormous. I spend a large part of yesterday downloading complicated (and therefore, completely useless for this non-techie type) programs designed to compress video files and package them neatly in a ready-for-web format.
Frustrated, I finally went in search of my Panasonic Lumix TZ11 (TZ4 outside of Australia) manual. Because everybody knows you can’t officially read the manual until after you’ve tried everything else, right? And then, right at the bottom of the box, I spy a disc. It’s a software bundle. It includes a media whatsit designed to help you create slideshows with music. I am bored so I install it, then play around a little.
Wouldn’t you know it, the program is simple enough for even me to understand AND it compresses the files to around ten percent of their original size! Woot. I therefore give you my first home video attempt:
Moo learns to ride a bike! from Lizzie's Home on Vimeo.
She can’t be seven already. She must be three still. No, really. Sigh.
Frustrated, I finally went in search of my Panasonic Lumix TZ11 (TZ4 outside of Australia) manual. Because everybody knows you can’t officially read the manual until after you’ve tried everything else, right? And then, right at the bottom of the box, I spy a disc. It’s a software bundle. It includes a media whatsit designed to help you create slideshows with music. I am bored so I install it, then play around a little.
Wouldn’t you know it, the program is simple enough for even me to understand AND it compresses the files to around ten percent of their original size! Woot. I therefore give you my first home video attempt:
Moo learns to ride a bike! from Lizzie's Home on Vimeo.
She can’t be seven already. She must be three still. No, really. Sigh.
The Magical, Mythical “100 Barrier”, Or Why I Cannot Cull My Google Reader Subs
Remember last week when I waxed lyrical about my excessive subscription list in Google Reader? And I groaned because said list had topped 158?
Um. This morning it hit 169. And that was after I’d unsubbed from five.
Okay, so I have a problem. It stems from the fact that I love the entire realm of Bloggityville and there is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF out there. But I am determined. I will get down to 100.
I will! Stop laughing!
Um. This morning it hit 169. And that was after I’d unsubbed from five.
Okay, so I have a problem. It stems from the fact that I love the entire realm of Bloggityville and there is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF out there. But I am determined. I will get down to 100.
I will! Stop laughing!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Despite All The Meh, I’m Actually Really, Kinda, Sort Of Busy
I am alternatively loving and hating these school holidays.
For those not familiar with the Aussie school year, we (generally) break for summer around mid-December (sometimes later in states other than my own, I hear) and return for a new school year in the last week of January, a vacation of (roughly) 6 weeks. The school year is divided into four terms, each about equal (slight deviations depending on things like when Easter falls) at 10 weeks. At the end of each term, we have 2 weeks of holiday before returning for the next term and then the school year ends in December, as mentioned.
So we’re pretty much smack in the middle of Crazy Town right about now.
I love, love, love the fact that I do not have to worry about such mundane Mummy chores as making school lunches or making sure uniforms are clean. I love hanging out with the kiddos. And I especially love the fact my alarm clock doesn’t go off at dawn o’clock (this night owl don’t get much sleep during the school week, you see).
But GOOD GOLLY I am exhausted!
Vacations are funny things. You have to time them right. Too short and you might as well not bother. Too long, and you wind up feeling more tired when you return, instead of the ‘relaxed like jelly’ deal you were hoping for. Our recent trip away over Christmas was a bit like this. I loved doing the trip, I really did. But there came a point - I believe it was sometime on Day 10, driving along the highway between the second and third sets of relatives - where I was just OVER IT ALREADY.
And it was hot. And I was stinky. Yeah, I’ll own it! If I was home, I could shower all day long if I needed it and then loll about under the aircon. You can’t do that when trying to corral 4 adults and 6 children aged between 4 and 10 into whatever activity is planned that day, and the fact that it was in the low thirties most of the time (that’s around 90ºF for you northern hemispherans) did not help. (I still maintain that I was born on the wrong continent. I’m still planning to move to Canada, LOL) I hate being sweaty. And um? Six children, three of whom were, uh, less used to rules than our kids are? It made for a SUPER peaceful end to our break away.
Coming home was bliss. I will say this though - Talented Hubby has one of the silliest car rules imaginable (made tolerable only because he didn’t throw on his music and allowed me to hook my iPod up instead - although his caveat was, nothing from the ‘Romantic’ playlist, sheesh!). I, as front seat passenger, am not allowed to sleep in the car. My job is therefore to be his ’talking companion’ so he doesn’t get too tired on long car trips. Have you ever tried to exist for twelve straight nights in a sleeping arrangement where everyone is at arms length from everyone else? There wasn’t a lot of sleep going on. To then get in a car, where everyone kind of pipes down, the kids tend to fall asleep anyway, the road undulates in the heat and your eyes get lower…and lower…and lower until suddenly you’re fightin’ the Sandman and deciding you don’t care because at this point, sleep - even the sort where you’re sitting upright in a bouncing seat, using the seatbelt strap as a pillow - feels like a little piece of Heaven and –
POKE!!!
We made frequent highway petrol station stops for caffeine-based beverages and chocolate bars, my friends.
I am supremely grateful we made it home in one piece (there were several holiday deaths over the two states we travelled in) but I would be lying if I said I missed being away from home. Home is WONDERFUL. I shall never complain about home again!
We’ve done not much of anything since returning home on Saturday night. Today was the first day we planned an actual ‘activity’. We saw Bolt at the cinema - which the kids loved and will be, no doubt, pooling their pocket money to buy on DVD in a few months - using a free double movie pass for the adults and paying for the kids’ tickets (still not cheap, around $11 each - how I long for these ’second run/dollar ticket’ cinemas I keep hearing about in the States!) We then stopped off at Blockbuster on the way home. We grabbed Beethoven’s 2nd, Beethoven’s 3rd (how can you resist a blue eyed little girl’s pleas?) The Princess Bride (which, amazingly, I have never seen), High School Musical (we are so late on this fad…but Master J was gifted HSM 2 for Christmas and we’ve been holding off watching it until we got through the first one) and Willow.
We watched Willow this afternoon. It must have been fifteen years since I last saw it, and yet I remembered it nearly word for word - it was one of my favourites as a kid, repeatedly watched on an old VHS we taped off the TV one time. I remember being so petrified of those weird warthog creatures and when Moo jumped out of her skin when they were on screen I secretly congratulated myself on exposing her to yet another of my best childhood memories, LOL. Hey, Talented Hubby gets to play-wrestle and do the whole Lego/Star Wars/Flight of the Navigator deal with the boys. I get the Jane Austen period dramas, Anne of Green Gables and Care Bears!
Hopefully, if I can get my butt into gear after all this Post Holiday Meh, there’ll be something cool happening tomorrow - so stay tuned!
For those not familiar with the Aussie school year, we (generally) break for summer around mid-December (sometimes later in states other than my own, I hear) and return for a new school year in the last week of January, a vacation of (roughly) 6 weeks. The school year is divided into four terms, each about equal (slight deviations depending on things like when Easter falls) at 10 weeks. At the end of each term, we have 2 weeks of holiday before returning for the next term and then the school year ends in December, as mentioned.
So we’re pretty much smack in the middle of Crazy Town right about now.
I love, love, love the fact that I do not have to worry about such mundane Mummy chores as making school lunches or making sure uniforms are clean. I love hanging out with the kiddos. And I especially love the fact my alarm clock doesn’t go off at dawn o’clock (this night owl don’t get much sleep during the school week, you see).
But GOOD GOLLY I am exhausted!
Vacations are funny things. You have to time them right. Too short and you might as well not bother. Too long, and you wind up feeling more tired when you return, instead of the ‘relaxed like jelly’ deal you were hoping for. Our recent trip away over Christmas was a bit like this. I loved doing the trip, I really did. But there came a point - I believe it was sometime on Day 10, driving along the highway between the second and third sets of relatives - where I was just OVER IT ALREADY.
And it was hot. And I was stinky. Yeah, I’ll own it! If I was home, I could shower all day long if I needed it and then loll about under the aircon. You can’t do that when trying to corral 4 adults and 6 children aged between 4 and 10 into whatever activity is planned that day, and the fact that it was in the low thirties most of the time (that’s around 90ºF for you northern hemispherans) did not help. (I still maintain that I was born on the wrong continent. I’m still planning to move to Canada, LOL) I hate being sweaty. And um? Six children, three of whom were, uh, less used to rules than our kids are? It made for a SUPER peaceful end to our break away.
Coming home was bliss. I will say this though - Talented Hubby has one of the silliest car rules imaginable (made tolerable only because he didn’t throw on his music and allowed me to hook my iPod up instead - although his caveat was, nothing from the ‘Romantic’ playlist, sheesh!). I, as front seat passenger, am not allowed to sleep in the car. My job is therefore to be his ’talking companion’ so he doesn’t get too tired on long car trips. Have you ever tried to exist for twelve straight nights in a sleeping arrangement where everyone is at arms length from everyone else? There wasn’t a lot of sleep going on. To then get in a car, where everyone kind of pipes down, the kids tend to fall asleep anyway, the road undulates in the heat and your eyes get lower…and lower…and lower until suddenly you’re fightin’ the Sandman and deciding you don’t care because at this point, sleep - even the sort where you’re sitting upright in a bouncing seat, using the seatbelt strap as a pillow - feels like a little piece of Heaven and –
POKE!!!
We made frequent highway petrol station stops for caffeine-based beverages and chocolate bars, my friends.
I am supremely grateful we made it home in one piece (there were several holiday deaths over the two states we travelled in) but I would be lying if I said I missed being away from home. Home is WONDERFUL. I shall never complain about home again!
We’ve done not much of anything since returning home on Saturday night. Today was the first day we planned an actual ‘activity’. We saw Bolt at the cinema - which the kids loved and will be, no doubt, pooling their pocket money to buy on DVD in a few months - using a free double movie pass for the adults and paying for the kids’ tickets (still not cheap, around $11 each - how I long for these ’second run/dollar ticket’ cinemas I keep hearing about in the States!) We then stopped off at Blockbuster on the way home. We grabbed Beethoven’s 2nd, Beethoven’s 3rd (how can you resist a blue eyed little girl’s pleas?) The Princess Bride (which, amazingly, I have never seen), High School Musical (we are so late on this fad…but Master J was gifted HSM 2 for Christmas and we’ve been holding off watching it until we got through the first one) and Willow.
We watched Willow this afternoon. It must have been fifteen years since I last saw it, and yet I remembered it nearly word for word - it was one of my favourites as a kid, repeatedly watched on an old VHS we taped off the TV one time. I remember being so petrified of those weird warthog creatures and when Moo jumped out of her skin when they were on screen I secretly congratulated myself on exposing her to yet another of my best childhood memories, LOL. Hey, Talented Hubby gets to play-wrestle and do the whole Lego/Star Wars/Flight of the Navigator deal with the boys. I get the Jane Austen period dramas, Anne of Green Gables and Care Bears!
Hopefully, if I can get my butt into gear after all this Post Holiday Meh, there’ll be something cool happening tomorrow - so stay tuned!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Meet My Woogie! Tag Blankie Show & Tell (Plus Links To Tutorials)
Babies are so cute, aren’t they? Those little cheeks! The tiny little clothes! The delightful way they spit up all over your good black top five minutes before you have to walk out the door!
Alas, it’s been many a moon since I had a wee thing about the house. Miss Moo turned 7 right before Christmas, the last scraps of childhood disintegrating before my eyes. Sigh. And nobody around me is currently pregnant or has a newborn anymore, meaning when I get the urge to do a little baby sewing, I have to remind myself I can’t use whatever it is I’m getting the urge to make. Take cloth nappies. Every few months I’ll get the bug to sew some all-in-ones, just for the heck of it. And we’ve been nappy free for four years!
It was the same when I stumbled across this super simple baby blanket idea about two months before Christmas. I ummed and ahhed about buying the materials with nobody in mind to give the finished product to. And then two things happened.
I met the gorgeous (and very pregnant! woot! 4-8 weeks to go!) fellow Aussie blogger Sarah from Thoughts From My Head. Well, when I say ‘met’, I mean cyber-stalk, LOL. We found we had lots in common and exchanged several emails. A plan was forming in my head (bwaa-haaa-haaa!)
The second thing that happened was that I became intrigued by a challenge set up by a blogging friend of mine, Lynn, from Spiritually Unequal Marriage. At first, she wouldn’t tell us what would happen when we signed up for a Kingdom Assignment. The next thing I knew, I had received a crisp (American!) dollar bill in the mail and instructions to ’spend it wisely’. Isn’t that cool? Lynn actually posted the dollar all the way down here to Australia! You may have heard about similar challenges done through local churches, but I had never participated in anything like it and was sitting here working my brain into a frenzy wondering what to do with the money that was both poignant and appropriate - and then I had an epiphany (I love it when that happens, LOL). Combining the assignment with my newfound friendship with Sarah and my insatiable (and largely sporadic!) need to sew things for mythical babies, I decided the project - which I affectionately called “Woogie”, after my own kids’ name for security blankets - would be my contribution to the Kingdom Assignment.
At the time, US$1 translated into around AUD$1.50 (sigh…gone are the days of 90+ cents on the Greenback!) and I worked it out to be about a quarter of the cost of the ribbon, or roughly one side of the below picture. Lynn, I think that edge on the right is the one you sponsored, LOL (and by the way, that American dollar bill? My kids have started a foreign money collection!) I happily paid for the rest of the materials - and later, the postage - beaming the whole time.
Bright, isn’t it?!! I hope Sarah’s poor defenceless baby - not sure whether its a boy or a girl yet - isn’t rendered blind from All The Crazy Colours but I just couldn’t resist. This one has a flannel ’shell’ and a polar fleece ‘core’ for general toastiness, and I figure it will be about perfect for a stroller-bound kidlet come late autumn/winter here in Australia, when ‘Spaceghost’ is a few months old. The final size (a bit hard to tell in the picture) is roughly 20″ x 20″ and each ribbon loop around 2cm (a little under an inch) long. I love the idea of the loops because they are so multi-functional. You could create a couple of simple fabric ties with buttons to thread through some loops and attach it to your stroller so it doesn’t drag in the dirt (remove and keep the ties on the stroller if Junior wants to snuggle on the sofa - safety first with the buttons). Or you can whip up some softies complete with their own ribbon loops and use plastic (non-toxic) linking rings to attach them to the blankie (Homemade By Jill - link at the bottom - has a great example of this). And of course, Bubs can twiddle the loops between his/her fingers till the cows come home. Try it with textured ribbons for an even bigger kick!
It came together so nicely and I had so much leftover flannel (I couldn’t decide on the colour scheme!) I decided to experiment with a second Woogie in a ‘pocket’ size. It’s similar to the Stroller Woogie but it omits the core (leaving just the two outside layers of flannel) and is around 9″ x 9″ - just big enough to tote around. Both versions are machine-washable.
The concept isn’t a new one, and if you scroll to the end of this post you’ll see I’ve included a little ‘link love’ to showcase the other awesome examples I found as I went about collecting ideas for my own. I would have loved to make the ‘backside’ (the plain coloured side) of each Woogie with some sort of texture - the tutorials mentioned Minky fabric - but my local fabric store didn’t have the best range. Mail order next time baby!
You might be worried about those ribbon loops. While due supervision should always be given when giving a baby anything handmade (and anything factory-made, for that matter), I was extra-careful about sewing the ribbon down - each loop was sewn through a minimum of six times, and with four of those passes my ancient Janome was set at ‘triple stitch’. Additionally, I kept the loops purposely short to minimize the choking risk if by some miracle (disaster) one happens to get loose. If you decide to make one of these gorgeous blankies yourself, please be extra-vigilant with the ribbons :)
I had a serious blast making this and keeping it a surprise. As is my custom, I completely ignored my deadline until the last possible second and was up until the wee hours the night before leaving for our Christmas vacation, putting together the final touches, such as the quick card you can see in the above photo. It was designed using Scrapblog in about five minutes flat - the lazy gal’s way to scrapbook, LOL - and printed on photographic paper and then glued to card. I also printed a larger version (A4 size) in case Sarah and her hubby produce a little sister for big brother Critter and want to frame it (it’s a tad girlie for a boy baby). The quote reads: A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for. (Anonymous)
Here are the two Woogies packaged and ready for the mail. I white-knuckled it a bit, but ultimately got it in the post in time for express overnight shipping, and it arrived Tuesday 23rd December.
I made Sarah wait until Christmas Day to open it, LOL. Sarah, you did wait didn’t you? SARAH?
I feel very blessed to have been a part of this, and there’s a really big reason why. Sarah (who has graciously given permission for me to share this information) has suffered from post-natal depression in the past and Spaceghost’s impending birth has worried her a little. I must admit, even before the Kingdom Assignment and the idea for the tag blankie came along, I was planning to send her some treats when the birth drew nearer, even going so far as to come up with some cleverly creative fairytale about wanting to send her some of Talented Hubby’s leftover photographic greeting cards in order to get her home address :) - cards which she is still welcome to! LOL. But the timing played out perfectly, which I think is just the coolest thing ever :)
And honestly, how can you be sad when a blankie like this one pretty much screams “BE HAPPY DARN IT!” with its bright colours? LOL. Big cyber-hugs Sarah and I’m thrilled to have been involved in brightening your Christmas!
Tutorials:
Mama’s Doodles - Twiddler Tag Blankie Tutorial - Love the non-traditional colours.
Craftblog.com.au - Appliqued Ribbon Blanket Tutorial - Ideal as a personalised baby shower gift!
Check These Ideas Out:
Homemade By Jill - Tag Blanket and Toys - I am seeing lots of possibilities with these.
Bry, Bre and NYC - What Do You Do When Your Husband Is Studying? - I really like the slight quilting with these ones.
Quiltcetera Blog - TagAlong Baby Blankie - More quilted versions.
Thornberry - Baby Tag Blanket - A good example of using different types and textures of ribbon.
Thornberry - Sensory Tag Blanket - I love the idea behind this blankie, designed for a blind child :)
Alas, it’s been many a moon since I had a wee thing about the house. Miss Moo turned 7 right before Christmas, the last scraps of childhood disintegrating before my eyes. Sigh. And nobody around me is currently pregnant or has a newborn anymore, meaning when I get the urge to do a little baby sewing, I have to remind myself I can’t use whatever it is I’m getting the urge to make. Take cloth nappies. Every few months I’ll get the bug to sew some all-in-ones, just for the heck of it. And we’ve been nappy free for four years!
It was the same when I stumbled across this super simple baby blanket idea about two months before Christmas. I ummed and ahhed about buying the materials with nobody in mind to give the finished product to. And then two things happened.
I met the gorgeous (and very pregnant! woot! 4-8 weeks to go!) fellow Aussie blogger Sarah from Thoughts From My Head. Well, when I say ‘met’, I mean cyber-stalk, LOL. We found we had lots in common and exchanged several emails. A plan was forming in my head (bwaa-haaa-haaa!)
The second thing that happened was that I became intrigued by a challenge set up by a blogging friend of mine, Lynn, from Spiritually Unequal Marriage. At first, she wouldn’t tell us what would happen when we signed up for a Kingdom Assignment. The next thing I knew, I had received a crisp (American!) dollar bill in the mail and instructions to ’spend it wisely’. Isn’t that cool? Lynn actually posted the dollar all the way down here to Australia! You may have heard about similar challenges done through local churches, but I had never participated in anything like it and was sitting here working my brain into a frenzy wondering what to do with the money that was both poignant and appropriate - and then I had an epiphany (I love it when that happens, LOL). Combining the assignment with my newfound friendship with Sarah and my insatiable (and largely sporadic!) need to sew things for mythical babies, I decided the project - which I affectionately called “Woogie”, after my own kids’ name for security blankets - would be my contribution to the Kingdom Assignment.
At the time, US$1 translated into around AUD$1.50 (sigh…gone are the days of 90+ cents on the Greenback!) and I worked it out to be about a quarter of the cost of the ribbon, or roughly one side of the below picture. Lynn, I think that edge on the right is the one you sponsored, LOL (and by the way, that American dollar bill? My kids have started a foreign money collection!) I happily paid for the rest of the materials - and later, the postage - beaming the whole time.
Bright, isn’t it?!! I hope Sarah’s poor defenceless baby - not sure whether its a boy or a girl yet - isn’t rendered blind from All The Crazy Colours but I just couldn’t resist. This one has a flannel ’shell’ and a polar fleece ‘core’ for general toastiness, and I figure it will be about perfect for a stroller-bound kidlet come late autumn/winter here in Australia, when ‘Spaceghost’ is a few months old. The final size (a bit hard to tell in the picture) is roughly 20″ x 20″ and each ribbon loop around 2cm (a little under an inch) long. I love the idea of the loops because they are so multi-functional. You could create a couple of simple fabric ties with buttons to thread through some loops and attach it to your stroller so it doesn’t drag in the dirt (remove and keep the ties on the stroller if Junior wants to snuggle on the sofa - safety first with the buttons). Or you can whip up some softies complete with their own ribbon loops and use plastic (non-toxic) linking rings to attach them to the blankie (Homemade By Jill - link at the bottom - has a great example of this). And of course, Bubs can twiddle the loops between his/her fingers till the cows come home. Try it with textured ribbons for an even bigger kick!
It came together so nicely and I had so much leftover flannel (I couldn’t decide on the colour scheme!) I decided to experiment with a second Woogie in a ‘pocket’ size. It’s similar to the Stroller Woogie but it omits the core (leaving just the two outside layers of flannel) and is around 9″ x 9″ - just big enough to tote around. Both versions are machine-washable.
The concept isn’t a new one, and if you scroll to the end of this post you’ll see I’ve included a little ‘link love’ to showcase the other awesome examples I found as I went about collecting ideas for my own. I would have loved to make the ‘backside’ (the plain coloured side) of each Woogie with some sort of texture - the tutorials mentioned Minky fabric - but my local fabric store didn’t have the best range. Mail order next time baby!
You might be worried about those ribbon loops. While due supervision should always be given when giving a baby anything handmade (and anything factory-made, for that matter), I was extra-careful about sewing the ribbon down - each loop was sewn through a minimum of six times, and with four of those passes my ancient Janome was set at ‘triple stitch’. Additionally, I kept the loops purposely short to minimize the choking risk if by some miracle (disaster) one happens to get loose. If you decide to make one of these gorgeous blankies yourself, please be extra-vigilant with the ribbons :)
I had a serious blast making this and keeping it a surprise. As is my custom, I completely ignored my deadline until the last possible second and was up until the wee hours the night before leaving for our Christmas vacation, putting together the final touches, such as the quick card you can see in the above photo. It was designed using Scrapblog in about five minutes flat - the lazy gal’s way to scrapbook, LOL - and printed on photographic paper and then glued to card. I also printed a larger version (A4 size) in case Sarah and her hubby produce a little sister for big brother Critter and want to frame it (it’s a tad girlie for a boy baby). The quote reads: A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for. (Anonymous)
Here are the two Woogies packaged and ready for the mail. I white-knuckled it a bit, but ultimately got it in the post in time for express overnight shipping, and it arrived Tuesday 23rd December.
I made Sarah wait until Christmas Day to open it, LOL. Sarah, you did wait didn’t you? SARAH?
I feel very blessed to have been a part of this, and there’s a really big reason why. Sarah (who has graciously given permission for me to share this information) has suffered from post-natal depression in the past and Spaceghost’s impending birth has worried her a little. I must admit, even before the Kingdom Assignment and the idea for the tag blankie came along, I was planning to send her some treats when the birth drew nearer, even going so far as to come up with some cleverly creative fairytale about wanting to send her some of Talented Hubby’s leftover photographic greeting cards in order to get her home address :) - cards which she is still welcome to! LOL. But the timing played out perfectly, which I think is just the coolest thing ever :)
And honestly, how can you be sad when a blankie like this one pretty much screams “BE HAPPY DARN IT!” with its bright colours? LOL. Big cyber-hugs Sarah and I’m thrilled to have been involved in brightening your Christmas!
Tutorials:
Mama’s Doodles - Twiddler Tag Blankie Tutorial - Love the non-traditional colours.
Craftblog.com.au - Appliqued Ribbon Blanket Tutorial - Ideal as a personalised baby shower gift!
Check These Ideas Out:
Homemade By Jill - Tag Blanket and Toys - I am seeing lots of possibilities with these.
Bry, Bre and NYC - What Do You Do When Your Husband Is Studying? - I really like the slight quilting with these ones.
Quiltcetera Blog - TagAlong Baby Blankie - More quilted versions.
Thornberry - Baby Tag Blanket - A good example of using different types and textures of ribbon.
Thornberry - Sensory Tag Blanket - I love the idea behind this blankie, designed for a blind child :)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Quick Question ~ Net Weight Of Meats After Cooking?
My brain isn’t working terribly well today, so for the life of me I can’t work out the answer to this problem, LOL.
Is there a general rule of thumb for determining how much moisture loss occurs after cooking a piece of meat or poultry? We’re talking plain grilling of meats, not cooking it up in a recipe (where it could absorb more weight from the cooking juices). I read somewhere that meat loses up to a third of its original raw weight (depending, of course, on whether the meat is rare or well done) and poultry and fish somewhere around 10-15% but I can’t find confirmation of that online.
I’m running myself up a food servings checklist and have all the raw weights/serving sizes down pat (150g for meat/poultry, 180g for white fish, in case you were wondering!) but I’m curious how it relates when ordering out (and I also know about the ‘deck of cards’ rule for cooked meat but you know, I’m a tad obsessive so I want to know the figures for myself!)
Much appreciated interwebs!
Is there a general rule of thumb for determining how much moisture loss occurs after cooking a piece of meat or poultry? We’re talking plain grilling of meats, not cooking it up in a recipe (where it could absorb more weight from the cooking juices). I read somewhere that meat loses up to a third of its original raw weight (depending, of course, on whether the meat is rare or well done) and poultry and fish somewhere around 10-15% but I can’t find confirmation of that online.
I’m running myself up a food servings checklist and have all the raw weights/serving sizes down pat (150g for meat/poultry, 180g for white fish, in case you were wondering!) but I’m curious how it relates when ordering out (and I also know about the ‘deck of cards’ rule for cooked meat but you know, I’m a tad obsessive so I want to know the figures for myself!)
Much appreciated interwebs!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
I Am HOME! My Own Sheets! What Luxury!
Didn’t know I was gone, did ya?
God bless scheduled posting. We were gone from the afternoon of Dec 22 right through to about 2 hours ago, Jan 3. TWELVE NIGHTS. We’ve never taken a trip that long as a family before, let alone one that crossed two states, three sets of relatives, and two holiday parks.
We are, not surprisingly, exhausted.
I hereby declare that I am hosting Christmas next year, negating the need to travel ANYWHERE. And possibly having it catered, I’m still deciding.
More tomorrow, when we’ve all been suitably fed, watered, and washed!
God bless scheduled posting. We were gone from the afternoon of Dec 22 right through to about 2 hours ago, Jan 3. TWELVE NIGHTS. We’ve never taken a trip that long as a family before, let alone one that crossed two states, three sets of relatives, and two holiday parks.
We are, not surprisingly, exhausted.
I hereby declare that I am hosting Christmas next year, negating the need to travel ANYWHERE. And possibly having it catered, I’m still deciding.
More tomorrow, when we’ve all been suitably fed, watered, and washed!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Quick Poll ~ How Many Is Too Many In Google Reader?
I 300% double-heart Google Reader. Really. I especially love the fact that I can log on anywhere and catch up with my blog reading - which I couldn’t do if everything was simply ‘favourited’ in my browser.
But I have a compulsion.
It started with a simple click through to a blog someone else recommended. Then came the blog carnivals and wanting to see what everyone else contributed. Then I found I really liked what these other bloggers were talking about, so I began reading them regularly. And each one of them links to other blogs which similarly catch (and generally keep) my interest. Then came the ‘recommended feeds’ Google so lovingly saw fit to bring to my attention. I regularly snaffle up new subscriptions from that.
This morning I checked and I am currently following 158 blogs and sites.
No, I don’t read them all every day. I read the headlines every day. Another good reason to make your headings super interesting :)
But geez…158? Even I think that’s a tad excessive.
How many subscriptions do you keep at any given time in Google Reader or Bloglines? Do you have a cut off point, some arbitrary figure at which you start to hyperventilate and go on a clean-out spree? What criteria do you hold to in order to retain one blog over the next?
Thoughts to ponder…
But I have a compulsion.
It started with a simple click through to a blog someone else recommended. Then came the blog carnivals and wanting to see what everyone else contributed. Then I found I really liked what these other bloggers were talking about, so I began reading them regularly. And each one of them links to other blogs which similarly catch (and generally keep) my interest. Then came the ‘recommended feeds’ Google so lovingly saw fit to bring to my attention. I regularly snaffle up new subscriptions from that.
This morning I checked and I am currently following 158 blogs and sites.
No, I don’t read them all every day. I read the headlines every day. Another good reason to make your headings super interesting :)
But geez…158? Even I think that’s a tad excessive.
How many subscriptions do you keep at any given time in Google Reader or Bloglines? Do you have a cut off point, some arbitrary figure at which you start to hyperventilate and go on a clean-out spree? What criteria do you hold to in order to retain one blog over the next?
Thoughts to ponder…
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