Poems this week

Soft words, gentle touch,

oxytocin highs make bub 

and safely birth bub

 

Hotel Rwanda

Harrowing true genocide

and deep, selfless love

 

Far away bike zooms,

distant dog barks, birds chirp.

Peaceful dawn soundtrack.

 

 

54.

Icey drink, luxe mag

Sweet, crunchy almond shortbread

makes shopping worth it.

happy on saturday

i have been unsettled today, the girls have been afflicted with fever and coughs, the rain poured down, the car was out of service........

last weekend was one long frustration and the week has been frightfully busy so i had hoped to really enjoy this weekend and i was a bit disgruntled that it was all going pear shaped again.

then i went to the shops. i had to take back a rented dvd and while there i was tempted by persimmons and mandarins. we got some noodles to make fish soup for dinner and discovered pandan cake and kaya, foods of my husband's home malaysia that i have never seen in australia before, available in the local asian market.
as we shopped the rain bucketed and we got wetter
and colder
(and poorer)

then we came home

the girls were more miserable than ever

but the house was warm and dry
the soup was comforting and tasty, we had sticky date pudding for sweets.

the girls revived slightly
george (the mouse) rolled around hilariously in his exercise ball

it was home as home should be
suddenly the frustration evaporated

and i was happy

calling for volunteers

you are going to have to be patient listening to my tales of illness, not because i love being sick but because it is the most interesting thing to happen to me for a while. i have a cannula, something like this one, right in the bend of my elbow. on my right arm. it means i cant bend my elbow properly and now, as well as a gammy leg i have a crook arm. it makes it hard to do lots of stuff but what i really need is someone to clean my teeth, do my hair and wash my underarms :)

thanks for your well wishes. i love youse all xx

ouchy ouch

remember how i ended up at he docs on my birthday? (sore foot)
remember how it was nothing?
well, it was something.

i have cellulitis
it's going up my leg

it hurts.
a lot.

the horse size antibiotics i got this morning dont seem to be helping. now i have to decide whether i go to the hospital for IV meds. (not zacks meds, heaven forbid)
it will be embarrassing if i get sent home

ouch

Theme Thursday: Whoops!

One day, a little over a year ago I wanted to attend the funeral of a man who had been a neighbour and attended the same church as me. He was a quiet man and despite him being around for my whole life I wouldn't say that I knew him well.....

Anyway, on this particular day I was babysitting my niece who was about 18 months old at the time. I took her to the funeral with me and we did well for a while but then she got crotchety. I patted, I cuddled, I offered food but eventually I decided to retreat to the foyer of the church where the crotchetiness continued. The men from the funeral parlour waited in the foyer for the service to finish and watched me as I tried to pacify this cranky wee girl. I picked her up, she wanted down. I put her down, she wanted up. I rummaged in my bag looking for treasures to amuse a small child. I picked her up, I put her down. I pointed at objects and people. I counted cars. I picked her up, I put her down. And on it went.

Little did I realise that as I performed this mini workout my carefully chosen culottes were working themselves loose. They slipped down, further down, and further still until just as they probably were about to drop off I noticed this wardrobe malfunction. I wonder if the funeral assistants had noticed a good four inches of funereal black knicker on full display !

ps: don't forget the competition

the day that was

• work forgot to pay the bills and we had no internet this morning. it doesnt matter to me, i dont use it, but really? duh
• my friend's cat died. no direspect to poor ben, he was a nice cat but in this house we killed ourselves talking about how he went through the pearly cat flap
• i'm off to the dentist tomorrow. yay
• we have acquired a mouse, george. we didnt get him today but i thought it would fit in this post. george is gold. and diabolically cute

Paranoia and Pictures

Before I start on the events of the last few days, Suzanne wanted to know about my birthday: My two little sweeties gave me handmade cards; the first read "Now you are officially old", the second: "You are ancient".

Oh, and there were lots of "I love you Mummy"s, "Happy Birthday"s and xxxxxxxs.

Dimples wishes me a loud and prompt Happy Birthday and Liam was preoccupied with a heavy load of school work.

At work we had the traditional, company supplied morning tea. This time there were five choices, which was record breaking. There were sausage rolls, Danish pastries, a scrumptious butter cake, custard tart and a custard pastry scroll thingy.

During the day I developed a very slight temperature and then noticed a red mark on my foot, close to the site of a very minor cut. Somehow I decided that this was all a very bad sign, that I might be developing a hideous infection that would threaten my weekend away.

After work we went to the local pub for dinner. The Thursday night special is $10 pizza or pasta. I had a Spaghetti Boscaiola, the girls had teeny "kids steaks" and the boys had pizzas. The other half had a seafood risotto. It was all marvellous but I was feeling chilly and worrying about the serious illness I didn't have so the meal was followed by a trip to the local medical centre. The duty doctor very kindly didn't howl with laughter but assured me I was fine and I immediately got better.Of course!

And that, my friends, was the tip of the iceberg for my paranoid imaginings for the week..........

more chat about the weekend is to come but here are a couple of
pictures from the main street of Orange, in the Central West region of
NSW

Many, many, many, many thanks to you for birthday wishes:)

I have to toddle off to bed now and I'll be round to read your stuff tomorra

xxxx

What a funny kind of a day I've had. Enough highs and lows to last a week, I'd reckon.
I started with good intentions to get lots of stuff done but then I got a bit distracted, a bit cranky and self pitying. I took some photos I was pleased with and promptly deleted them (by mistake of course) then went to see the girls play hockey.
I took the Taffster (our pooch) with me, there are not many places I would want to take him but the hockey was good. He had a grand old time in the park and the kids all adored him.
We came home and young Dimples had a wee hissy fit so his mother had a bigger one.
A friend of the girls' arrived mid-hissy fit for a play date I had agreed to when I had been rather better tempered. They were all sensible enough to stay outside while their ever-gracious mother pulled herself together.
Once I regained my usual state of questionable sanity I took no. 1 son to the shops to rent a dvd or two, came home and cooked dinner, discovered that Authorblog had kindly given me a mention in "post of the day", relaxed in the spa and then settled in to watch the Friday night movie with the kids.
Everything was going swimmingly until I dropped an entire, large mug of coffee on the bedroom carpet. Terrific.
Now that you have suffered all that I just have to tell you that if you haven't already seen Nanny Mc Phee (I'm terribly slow with these things) it was a visual feast. Probably not one for the blokes but full of gorgeous fabrics and colours: wonderful brocades, handmade quilts, beautiful dresses, fabulous wallpapers. It was just divine. And the young 'uns liked it too.

I don't often rave like that, now do I?

I'm a bit short of words this week so just have a look at some more pics while I think of something to say

This one is a favourite of mine, the purple is so rich and has the added bonus of reminding me of some purple loving friends.......

It also reminds me of a funny saying of my brother's : "Purple is the colour of sexual frustration"

Make of that what you will !

The Winter Garden

I'm really enjoying the late winter garden

Pretty much everything is in flower

Take a look

This one (above) looks better if you enlarge it

Below is a close up of the one above. I love the delicacy of this one.

Impromptu Party

You might remember that young Dimples turned 12 a coupla weeks back.......

He organised a party for himself: he invited about15 mates to hang out at the park today. I promised to provide sausage sandwiches and a cake

Then the rain started.
It rained on Thursday.
It rained more on Friday.

Even if the rain stopped the park would resemble a lake.
A change of venue was in order.
Our place.

What do you do with a dozen 12 year old boys when it's raining?

Well, as it turns out, only five have turned up, with another 2 on the way (they're an hour and a half late so I wasn't expecting more but no mind)

We started with drinks

They're watching The Simpsons Movie as I write

And eating lolly kebabs

When the movie is over I'll give 'em all a hot dog

And a piece of donut cake

How did my laundry become Mouse Central ??

I knew there was a mouse or maybe two visiting the laundry occasionally, I thought they came in to steal the dog's biscuits on the rare days that he didn't finish them all. Then, last week, I went to get an unopened bag of muesli off the shelf and they had chewed a hole in the bag. They had eaten most of my muesli.
During the week I started to notice mouse droppings. Every day there seemed to be more, many more. In more places. Then, the most horrific of all, I SMELLED MICE.
Yesterday the house was unusually quiet and I could hear them chewing into a pasta bag. They didn't even stop when I kicked at the shelf.

It was broad daylight !

How bold could they get?

I got out the baits I had bought. This was no longer a couple of innocent little mice. This was war.

No longer could I excuse them, no longer would their cuteness save them. I placed the bait. This morning there was mouse crap ON THE BAIT BOX.

Not much healthy reserve with this lot, was there?

I spent the day today tidying the admittedly disastrous dumping ground I call the laundry: moving stuff, binning stuff, washing stuff and vacuuming up mountains of mouse turds........GROSS!!

Obviously there have been more of the little buggers than I ever imagined. And they have been there for longer than I ever suspected.

There is still more to do but tonight, when they were once again boldly acting like they owned the place, I took great satisfaction in knowing that their days are numbered.

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 :)

Why?

When I wander about my place I often wonder "What the....."

Why is this basketball abandoned in the front yard?

Everyone has scissors on the fence, right?

This branch "fell down" when someone swung on it.

The scooters are also gracing the front yard and I'm pretty sure there were three of them, not two......if I'm hallucinating is it any wonder? The third is probably at the top of the steps, one day I'll go A over.....

This, though, is nice. If only I could remember to put some new plants in it.

5 year warranty

Last night I lay on No.1 son's bed with him and said "I want to write another post but I don't know what to do" He looked at the bed above him (he has the bottom of bunk beds) and reading the label on the mattress said "Restful bedding...... or 5 year warranty"
Hmmmm......
What would I like a five year warranty on?
What if someone could guarantee my houseplants to survive five years?
How about if people could maintain weight loss for five years?
Wouldn't it be good if pillows lasted five years? do your pillows go flat and awful in about two weeks?
Five years between pap tests? cool (sorry, fellas)
What about a hair colour that needed no maintenance for five years?
A lawn that only needs mowing every five years?
A petrol tank that only needs filling every five years......

Okay, now I'm just being silly but that's what I do best :)

What would you like a five year warranty on?

Notes from the padded room

I had an interesting Eureka moment this morning.........
Some time ago, probably a couple of years, I had a conversation about the word "quite".
My friend had used the word with beautiful: "quite beautiful" and I asked him whether the "quite" minimised the "beautiful" a little or made it stronger.
He answered that it made the beautiful stronger and wondered how I could imagine that "quite" would weaken the adjective it was placed with.
I struggled to explain but I knew that, even if my friend disagreed, there were/are times when I would use a word like quite or rather to soften it's partner.
Having read about the death of Dr. Frizzle I was remembering pet deaths here at Utopia and in my internal monologue, described one as "rather horrendous".
That's when the lightbulb went on!
The death of a pet might be traumatic, sad, distressing but horrendous? In my mind horrendous is for plane crashes and famines and extreme exaggeration but when teamed with "rather" an horrendous pet death seems almost appropriate.
All of this raises two questions: Have I misunderstood something here? Is a "rather horrendous" pet death better or worse than a plain horrendous one?
and does anyone else have flashbacks to inconsequential conversations?

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

Dessert

YAY I finally got this photo to post!!!!!
It's only taken about 10 tries, yes, T-E-N, I'm pretty sure.
It's now way past my bedtime and I have to be up at five and .....well, it's just a disaster but once I had decided to post I was gonna, come hell or highwater.

Excuse the tantrum, I'll just try to compose myself.....................
I thought I'd show you this view of tonights dessert. It's Christmas pudding but it's too hot to eat that stuff at Christmas, that's why we had it today.
The eagle eyed will notice that I didn't tidy up for this shot, I kind of thought that since a shot of a saucepan, including pea and carrot, went down well I'd stick with the whole domestic reality thing. See the vegetable peeler? I spent ages looking for that a couple of days ago, silly of me not to look in the middle of the dining table, really. I mean why would it be in the utensil drawer?
And look how I've trained the young 'uns to put knife and fork together properly. They'll go far :)

Manners maketh man

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!