What a week!

This week I ironed my last grey school shirt. This time 9 years ago I was preparing to send my first born off to "big school". I couldn't bear to put him in a nasty grey shirt. A couple of years later Dimples followed his big bro to school. No.1 son duly graduated to high school and yesterday Dimples followed suit, hence the end of the grey shirts. Where did those 9 years go?

The whole school joined to form an arch which the year 6 kids walked under as their final farewell. It is an emotional day for the teachers, the parents, the graduating class and their friends in lower grades. Even the general assistant came out to mark the occasion.

To my surprise Dimples came out of the arch sobbing his little heart out but it didn't last long and don't tell him I said so ;)

Talking of school, the young 'uns have had a great year. No.1 son has been promoted to the extension classes for English and Science. He also had a glowing report which uses all those cliches I usually didn't qualify for: consistent, hard working, polite, talented .....

to top it off he was invited to join the school stage band.

Dimples finished his primary schooling with the admiration of his teachers because he didn't run away from school once this year! His peers voted him "drama queen" and he accepted graciously. That's progress.

The Princess received an award for consistent and conscientious effort. Her report was also glowing with praise.

The Tomboy was awarded for citizenship, her academic effort was good .....

all together I couldn't be more pleased.

The Princess complained of a sore mouth on Thursday night, by Friday she obviously had an abcess. She seemed to be going ok so I told her I would make a dentist appointment for the weekend and continued with my day. Half an hour later she was on the phone with a query about pain relief. The call to the dentist was moved forward, she was relievd of the problematic tooth and I was relieved of $100.

After feeling generally odd for a week or so I took myself off to the chiro for an extra appointment today. "Kylie, what have you done??" she asked me. I don't know what I did, only that her response made me think that at least I wasn't imagining this oddness I had been struggling with. She will probably never fix all of my oddness but I like to think I've been left with the endearing bit!

Finally, I went to the hairdressers for a decent colour treatment. It was a new hairdresser and she didn't listen to a word I said but she did alright with the colour and to the delight of my girls she blow dried my hair straight. I have never had straight hair. Ever. It's kind of nice actually, I could get used to it.

Don't forget that I'm giving $1 to Anglicare for every comment you make. Flattering, thoughtful, cheery, intelligent, even inane rubbish will benefit someone so go on......

write me!

thanks #9

These are my boys with their new cousin.

and my girls with his sister

I can't make up my mind which aspect of this I am thankful for, the tenderness of the boys which is heartbreakingly sweet, the joie de vivre of the girls, my fondness for my own cousins.....

here i am being boring....

it was a case of showing a picture or telling you how i'm desperate for chocolate but don't have any........

i like this photo, even though i was talking at the time, because it clearly shows that my forehead wrinkles occasionally smooth away.

it was taken at the district public schools music festival, where my cherubs danced.

Joy of all joys

Today was the first real day of the school holidays and all I can say is I hope it gets better. Instructions to feed the rabbits, put dishes in the sink and generally leave the place only moderately pig-sty-ish were left on the table when hubby and I left for work about 7.30am. My Mum and Dad picked everyone up around 10.00 and took them to the shops, then back to "Ma & Pa's"
Ma made Rocky road with the girls while the boys played on the computer and everyone was dropped home to play in their own neighborhood around 3.30.
From 3.30 things deteriorated. Miss P up the road (aged 12) was also home without supervision and she had instructions not to allow any "foreign" children into the house. Miss P talked our Tomboy into going inside, no drama yet, but also phoned some friends and invited them over.
Hubby and I came home to a sane household but at some stage no.1 son got in a right strop. Dimples can be rather obnoxious and self centred (to say the least) and today no.1 son had just had enough. Now no.1 son is a decent young fella but when he gets stroppy it's just a wee bit ugly. The strop seemed uncontrollable so I sent him to the spa (hot tub) for some warm-water-and-alone-time therapy. My plan was a dismal failure. The strop was undissolvable and then Miss P's mother showed up to tell us about the "no foreigners" rule. I agreed to reinforce the rule with my mob and Miss P's mother went off to reinforce it with Miss P.
My irrefutable, non-negotiable, no.1 piece of mother-wisdom says that cranky, naughty, difficult children are probably tired so I sent no.1 son to bed to sleep off his calamitous tantrum. I soon realised though, that I have deprived him of the chance to watch his favourite TV show: Southpark!
Oh no, I have probably condemned myself to a day of retribution for this terrible act of meanness.
So, there you go: Miss P has unauthorised visitors, no.1 son is snarly, Dimples is characteristically unrepentant for his contribution to events and there's only ten working days to go!
I had been thinking of posting on the Weekend Wandering topic "What brings you to tears?" and now I have. Unintentionally :)

Thanks Muchly

I just have to tell everyone thank you so much for giving me a lovely birthday.
My wonderful children gave me lots of chocolates and a bunch of flowers picked from our garden, a work mate made me a spectacular paper orchid (well, that's what he said it was and I didn't have the heart to argue) friends called and texted, Mum & Dad dropped by for coffee, all you lovely bloggers made the kind of effort and fuss that I could only dream of and I started the year the way I expect to continue.....wondering what on earth to cook for dinner :)

Sydney is suffering a cold snap right now with overnight temperatures falling to single digits (please don't laugh if you are somewhere that gets seriously cold) No.1 son was at band camp for the weekend and tomorrow night is the concert, the tomboy has the "star of the week" award for her class and I have a day off on Friday. YAY

I'm Grateful.....

This week I have determined that I should collect all of my awards. When I think I have done that I'll let you know and if I have forgotten any you can let me know.

Bindi graciously bestowed this pretty award on me so I thought I'd make it true by practicing some gratitude.

Today I'm grateful for

• the sound of rain outside
• a job that allows me some flexibility
• a warm bed
• people to laugh with
• enough money for all that we need and much of what we want
• good health
• a beautiful bunch of dahlias on the coffee table
• the Tomboy's relentless joie de vivre
• the Princess's regular gifts to me....little letters & drawings and such like. The Tomboy will be offended if I don't recognise her offerings here, they're also wonderful.
• Dimples' general sweetness and exceptional potential
• No.1 son for our shared humour and his consistent appreciative eating of whatever I put in front of him
• the unwavering love of my "original" family

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
Maori Proverb

Biting off More than One person could Possibly Chew, Knowing it & doing it Anyway

Remember how I told you that I went shopping with the girls on Saturday?
I wanted to get them some good winter clothes, something they might wear to go to church or other semi-formal events. (I can't tell you what other events but you know, somewhere that their favoured jeans wouldn't be suitable)
There was NOTHING! No, nothing. Not at the local shopping centre, anyway. Everything was so cheap looking. Cheap looking clothes that would have produced cheap looking girls. Even the more expensive stuff looked cheap. Does no-one wear nice clothes? Do young girls all look like tramps? Was I at the wrong places? Or do I have unrealistic expectations? I just don't know.
We trawled the shops and I grew increasingly frustrated. Eventually I said to them "Let's go look at pattern books" They didn't want me to make clothes. "We'll just look" I said.
I've never been much of a sewer and it must be fourteen years since I last did anything but kids trackpants but we went in anyway.
I opened a Burda book, I always liked the Burda patterns, and found a pattern for a dress I thought I could possibly make. The girls thought they could possibly wear the dress. Miracle of miracles!
Now to buy some fabric. The Princess picked a black woollen flannel, embroidered in red. It was a very adult fabric. "Wouldn't you like something more colourful?" No, she would not like something more colourful.
Then I asked the Tomboy "What fabric do you want?"
"I don't care, I just wanna get out of here" I was inclined to agree.
"Do you want the same as your sister? do you really want to do that whole twin thing?"
"I really don't care" says my Tomboy "I just want to go"

The deal was done.
Now I have to make the dresses.
I might need to do a whole lot less blogging!

The Princess and The Tomboy

Overheard in Utopia

I suspect I overheard the end of an escalating exchange with this one:
The Princess "PULL them UP"
The Tomboy "NO"
The Princess "EVERYone can see your butt crack"
The Tomboy "Only if you're looking down my pants!"

Random stuff

My thoughts for today are just a list of random stuff.

• The local school and therefore my girls, play in The PSSA touch football grand final today. My Tomboy got player of the match last week. You Go Girls!


• With the altered routine of the coming holidays I might have to reduce or even stop my blogging so don't be surprised if I disappear for a bit and be assured I'll be back.


• I was going to talk about my latest thoughts on the subject of God, wasn't I? I have'nt forgotten but with one thing and another it's taking a while (and my notes are at work, not exactly easily accessible)


• Oh yeah, and why oh why does my dearly beloved kill cockroaches and leave them in the sink for me to get rid of? I hate it.

OOLF: Fear is temporary but regret is forever.

More Election Chat

I was pleased with the election result. A friend suggested that John Howard lost as opposed to Kevin Rudd winning and I suspect that is a fair assessment. Some politician said something along the lines of "The Australian people have chosen hope over fear...." There was more but I can't remember it.
Anyway, that pretty much sums it up for me. I'm so tired of scare-mongering. I notice it especially in politics and tabloid current affairs TV.
It's the work of the devil, we invite it in and give it the fatted calf. Stupid.

I was ecstatic that my baby girl, normally so laid back as to be horizontal, was dead keen to see the results. She watched the statistics (how many seats won and lost) avidly and demanded to be woken to see Howard concede. She informed me that John Howard is a cruel man and when I asked how she knew that she told me she learned it from watching the news. Little Bolshie. I love it.

OOLF: Black nail polish is my look for the week....I'm getting lots of attention for looking goth. Cool.

To Do List

Someone out in cyberspace is publishing other people's to-do-lists and doing very nicely with it. Apparently they give an interesting insight into the mind of the writer.....so here's mine. It's in no particular order and off the top of my head. Analyse away.

• Be the best Mum I can be
• Travel
• Read more
• See more movies
• Eat out more
• Wear great clothes
• Go to the dentist
• Vacuum
• Get a haircut

OOLF: My terrific girls played in an Oz Tag Gala day yesterday and their team, from a small school (280 students) came runners up. They were second only to a school of about 800. YAY.