Things to achieve in February..

With February now in full swing, I thought it time to outline my goals for the month;

1. Head back to work for the year.

2. Print out my Project Life Photographs so far for 2011 and organise my entire album.

3. Use my 2nd album to catch up on Indigo's scrapbooking (I have seen this done in some other blogs, check out the gorgeous Sunny Side Up blog to see a great example of this in action.

4. Finish tweaking the routine I have in place and stick to it as best I can.. I have a routine now for morning, night and in between that seems to be working wonderfully (more on that another time..)

5. Show my little man an excellent time for his 6th Birthday.. this year we are having 2 parties & a day off school to have some birthday fun.. why not? your only 6 once right? This week will be all about party planning in this house..

6. Wash the car

7. Keep up the gardening.. its been so lovely pottering in the garden in the past couple of weeks..

8. Keep cleaning out the 'nursery' - no longer labelled 'spare room'.

9. PAINT (Note to hubby) the bathroom & laundry!

and lucky last...

10. Have fun!

So they are my 10 goals for February.. Im sure there will be other goals to accompany them but at this stage I think that list is a good start for now and will keep me busy.

For the next week or so I am also going to take part in the '14 Days of Love' challenge outlined on 'Our Life on a Marquee Blog' which sets the challenge to  do one thing each day to show someone how much you love them - such a lovely idea in the lead up to Valentines Day. She has some great printables on her blog also, which are cute for Valentines Day.. so check them out and keep watching this space for my first item tomorrow!

14 Weeks Pregnant - The Story thus far..

Good morning world, its kind of early.. Iv been up since 4am.. which is usual for me lately, but unusual for me generally..  Why is it usual of me lately? Because at a little over 14 weeks pregnant, 8pm seems like my new bedtime, hence between 4-5am must be my wake-up time! thanks crazy body clock!!! It would be nice to get an extra couple of hours at night to get into my scrapbooking, project life, TV or even blogging, but instead, Im sooo out to it, nothing can stir me.  I must say I feel far more refreshed for all of the extra sleep though, so I wont complain.  It has also been quite handy with the school routine, because i'm up so early - we are never late!  I'm sure all of that will change when the little Miss or Mr arrives on the scene and everything starts and ends in chaos! So we'll relish it whilst we can..

As many know we have a blended family, I have 1 - he has 3, together we will have 5 (although we both say we have 4/5 otherwise its way too hard to explain)  So this is technically baby number 2 for me  (although that never quite sounds right, but baby number 5 doesn't sound right either)  so i'll stick with baby number 2.. tonight I wrote out part 1 of my baby journal on a forum I frequent which will catch my blog readers up to date so far on my pregnany ride, so I'll cut and paste from that;  Hopefully in the next day or two im motivated enough to plug in the scanner and put up a ultrasound piccy or 2. So yes, that is why my blogging has been a bit lax of late.. cause you can't blog whilst your asleep!

Story so far...

"At this point in time, I am a little over 14 weeks along.. with roughly 24 weeks to go until my cesarean date

(if thats the way I choose to go as things progress) as im booked in for the 26th July, which seems altogether waaay too close! LOL. But im sure, as I get bigger, it wont seem close enough.

So far my pregnancy has been lovely, I was anxious at first.. nearly fainted when i saw the double lines! Came out crying, hubby told me I wasn't meant to be sad.. that it was a happy time etc, but all I could do was worry.. What was I worrying about? To me it was a mixture of things, many of which i'm still worried about.. I was worried first and foremost for my DS, how was this going to change his life? I was worried for my health (mainly upon delivery..lol, i know panicking 9 months before..so typical of me!) and of course I was worried about miscarriage and the impending '12 week mark wait' ahead of me.. which at 5 weeks, seemed so far away. (Mind you I don't think that fear dissappears at 12 weeks, it just lessens). I probably had a gazillion more worries going through my head at this point too, hence the crying.. but in the end, I allowed myself a smile.. (much to DH's relief.. as he thought I was regretting my decision..)

We didn't tell anyone straight away, moreso kept it our little secret and slowly over the next week or so, began to tell people the news including the kids.. we told the kids on the night we went to get our Santa photo's.. after a nice dinner & night out, with the carols playing in the car, we told them that a baby was on the way.. They were all excited & started the 'what if's' pretty much immediately.. What if - it's a girl, a boy, siamese twins (wt??).. They wanted to know the in's and out's of everything when was it due, where will it sleep, will it go every 2nd weekend to it's father's house (can't half tell we have a blended family hey!?) But on the whole they were very excited. I was trying to read my DS's face for a sign, something that reassured me he was going to be ok, and although he looked a little confused by such big news.. the next day he asked if he could spread the news far and wide and said he was very happy, so that was a big relief to me.. phew.. For weeks my little man told me what to and not to eat (like a little doctor) and would ask "Can you eat that Mum, is it good for bubba?" LOL. When we got scans done in the first week of school, he also took them along for show and tell... some of the kids in his class asked "What colour eyes does it have" he came home rolling his eyes, "Don't they know you can't tell that yet" he said.

So Kids all told.. Parents next.. both set's happy.. which is always a relief I guess.. and then the remainder of the family followed... So everyone was notified by Christmas'time. Usually I feel like it jinx's things before 12 weeks, but its such hard news to keep quiet.

I kept worrying about my symptoms.. were they too little..I wasn't sick as such, so some days I felt completely normal and would have to remind myself I was carrying a little person. The only time I felt queasy as such was about 4-5pm, I could always tell the time without looking at the clock, from this feeling.. but it was never enough to keep me down as such. I had a similar feeling with DS, queasiness.. so the obstetrician said, this appears to be my bodies 'morning sickness'. I initially worried that maybe I wasn't 'sick enough' but after a few scans that showed everything to be completely normal.. I felt relief.. and lucky!

Although the tiredness, how crazy! I am usually quite the insomniac, staying up waaay past midnight and into the early hours.. but after the initial adrenalin had passed of wanting to jump back up at night and check out things online about pregnancy etc, I found myself falling asleep when getting my DS to bed each night.. whether that be at 7:30, 8 or later, I would doze off and that is the last you would see of me that evening except when I would stagger zombie like from his room back to my bed in the middle of the night.. lately I haven't even got that far, I sleep all night through in his room. Poor DH, lucky he has study to keep him occupied at the moment, because i'm not much company at night. Hoping that my energy will return soon enough so that I can watch some TV at night or even hold a conversation! (intelligent one, apparently my tired ramblings are quite funny..)

I had a scan at 6 weeks.. and a scan at 10 weeks (in the obs office) and then again at 13 weeks.. all was where it should be. Although I panicked about having an anterior placenta, because they say it can lead to more blood loss during a ceasar.. but then I read that DS's placenta was also anterior, which calmed me a little.. I am now going to panick only when im told to panick.. and at no other time. I feel that philosophy might help rather than my usual panick at every little thing logic!

So that is the story thus far.. here I sit at a little over 14 weeks.. looking forward to my next ob visit at 15 1/2 weeks, feeling baby soon enough and the 18-20 scan which I soooo need to find out if Im to buy up pink or blue as I need to fulfil my shopping urges!!!!"

Well enough about babies for now, tomorrow my post will be about getting into organisation mode around here, which has been on my agenda for the past couple of weeks.. Ill show you some of the projects im tackling and the progress I am making :)

Back to School..

The majority of my week has been spent preparing for 'Back to School'  week.  And there has been quite a lot to do with 4 children to prepare! This is the first year that I have had a book list for each of them, so I'm finding covering 60+ books quite daunting!   I ordered the text books and books through the recommended newsagent via the school book list, but wanted to purchase items such as pencil cases, stationary etc at other outlets so everything was more personalised for them (plus, who wants a tartan pencil case in this day and age!).  I was also able to start collecting these supplies earlier in the holidays this way, rather than leave it all to the end, so when I saw something I liked (such as these adorable lead pencils at Smiggle) I was able to buy them. 

 

Book covering this year, as I mentioned earlier has been quite daunting with over 60 books that need covering.  I had intended on buying book covers or contact but after looking into the associated costs, I opted for the method my Mum used for many, many years.. good old brown paper!  5 rolls later, with some additional stickers (Ben 10, Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh) and decorative pictures, posters etc ( for the older kids) the books were covered and the kids were impressed with their personalised books.  I did purchase some clear book sleeves to place over the brown paper (as I'm terrible with a roll of contact!) and some pretty gift wrap for the larger scrapbooks (as I couldn't help myself) but overall, using the brown paper cut the covering costs by ALOT! 

My favourite book covering, which I will stick to largely next year has been the gift wrap, you can get it at an affordable price 50c-$1 a sheet (or a roll if need be) and it comes in so many designs.  I also used a section of it in conjunction with clear contact to jazz up plain folders and pouches etc for a more personalised touch.

As far as labelling goes, this year I decided to mix it up a little.  Last year I predominantly used pre-purchased personalised labels from Moo for my Son's prep things, but as I have a lot more to label this year I have utilised my permanent Sharpie Laundry Marker (for pencils, felt pens, crayons etc..), my Dymo labeller (for labels on glues, markers, rulers, textbooks etc..) and personalised name labels for things such as lunchboxes, drink bottles etc. 

As far as labelling clothing goes, I still have plenty of surplus iron on labels from last years Moo order, so I will continue to use those and with an $80 pair of school shoes added into the mix this year, I bought some shoe dots.. just in case the shoes go wandering.. Which strangely (I say strangely as my stepdaughter loses her drink bottle daily) we have never had a shoe go missing before, but I guess there is always a first time for everything.

So with the uniforms and clothes ironed to cover us til Friday, I'm off to make lunch for the first day back!

Happy 30th to Me!

One week ago I turned 30.. but in the madness of the week that was (and wasn't) we have stretched my birthday out over the entire week and celebrated in dribs and drabs. How special, having a birthday week, instead of just one day!

I awoke on my birthday to the phone ringing at 7:15am, it was my Mum wishing me a happy birthday - she is an early riser!   It was a lovely phone call, but it was also lovely to get Birthday hugs from my Son and sleep in a little longer!   The 2nd time when I got up was at a more civilised hour  at my Aunties place, as we were staying there in case our home was affected by the flood to lots of cuddles and birthday wishes from my Nan, Aunty, Pop, Kids and cousins (which was lovely..)

I had a slow morning followed by a walk in the fresh air (cabin fever!) and a lovely BBQ lunch with my Nan, Pop, Aunty and Uncle. In the afternoon we came back home to a dry house (best present ever) and unpacked the house and settled back in.. As we had little food in the house we had McDonald's for dinner (thankfully before their limited menu kicked in..) and we all had an early night in the name of exhaustion and being in our own beds..

Yesterday my dear friend Kym popped over for a visit and spoilt me with a lovely pressie and cake, which we had last night, it was so gorgeous and yummy!

And today (or tomorrow..) whenever I go to bed and wake up again.. we will be doing a final birthday rerun, card - present and all.. the day we planned last Thursday, if not for the flood..

Then my birthday will be done and dusted for another year.. and what a year I hope it to be!

So much water, so much sadness.. so much community spirit.. xo

What a horrible, horrible week..  Last Monday I was oblivious to the week that lay ahead. And when I snapped a picture of the rain last weekend, I never imagined that a few short days later there would be a lot more water than anyone could have prepared for.  After watching the horror unfold in Toowoomba and its surrounding areas on Monday, we woke on Tuesday to find ourselves packing up and evacuating our home.  We were fortunate to have a place to store our belongings and a place to go, unlike many.  So we headed to my Aunty's place, kids - pets and all (thanks Aunty Storm xo) and waited and watched and waited and watched (the news, facebook and the BOM) until the river peaked and the next morning, Damian was able to head home to check how the house had fared. Amazingly, we were dry! I have no idea how, when our home was under in 1974, but by some miracle, there was only a few inches up the back fence.. Unfortunately others weren't so lucky and many faced the full devastation and the force of the floods.  Unpacking my belongings again seemed so trivial compared to what they were facing at the same time..

It has been lovely to see the community spirit in both the lead up and aftermath of the flood.. The amount of people concerned initially for other's safety, assisting in evacuating, offering places to stay, lending an ear and now afterwards cleaning up, lending a hand, offering support and assisting in any way they can, has been heartwarming to both see and hear.  Shows us that community spirit is still alive and well in our busy, modern society and if nothing else, this has served as a reminder of what the human spirit is capable of. 

As my Aunty put it, one feels rather guilty coming home to a hot shower, washing machine and a clean pair of clothes.. I am hopeful that in the weeks and months to come, everyone will have those little luxuries again and that we are all able to band together to ensure this happens as quickly as possible for everyone affected.

Frustrated at Technology!

I enjoy having gadgets and use them at times through my day to achieve tasks, have some down time, communicate with people and overall enhance my daily life.  I am happy with the way in which I am able to use these tools to get the job done! But at the end of the day, I can walk away - have a life and leave my gadgets behind.. although my iPhone is never far out of reach.   So why is it, our kids can't seem to foster the same healthy respect for their technology!

I am really struggling these holidays not to have a mass burning of DS's, Ipods, Wii's and TV's!! I am sick of repeating the phrase 'Put your DS away and PLAY!' -- 'No don't play your DS, read a book!'  which to my eldest 2 stepchildren (who these phrases are always directed at) seems like a massive insult.  Yesterday after lunch I told my 3 step kids they could go and lay on their bed quietly and read a book, a book in their language = DS.. I had to remind them a book has pages, words and doesn't require charging!! They once again weren't impressed when they had to turn in their electrical devices in exchange for the real deal, but I am sick of them sneaking in to play these things, when they know they should be doing something else..

Granted it has been raining here for many weeks, so I am Ok with them playing them from time to time.. but not all the time! During the school term I say Wii and DS only on the weekends, that way it doesn't get in the way of getting ready/homework etc.  But now I find myself having to limit them on weekends and holidays also!  I have started today a 1/2 hour limit on the DS's in the house, unless they are able to exercise a measure of self control and use them sensibly.. I think that is the only thing I can do to save these kids from themselves and their lazy lifestyle. We have decided not to install a computer in my eldest stepsons room as we had initially planned, as being the worst offender, we don't want to fuel his addiction & instead of watching a movie after lunch as they became accustomed to, that is now a quiet read for 1/2 hour or straight back into play..

I will be thinking about more ways to implement this into our household in the upcoming weeks before school goes back.. But I have decided on the following;

1. 1/2 hour DS at any one time.. no more than 1 hour a day.

2. No Wii on school days.

3. No movies after lunch, only in the evenings..

4. TV off at 8am, weekdays or weekends. TV only on, after they are completely dressed

    and ready for school.

5. 20 minutes reading each night before bed (which they do anyway..)

I just want the older ones imaginations back! :)

Happy New Year..

I cant believe we are already 9 days into the new year already, life has been kind of hectic in our household since New Years, so I haven't really had a spare moment to sit down and ponder what the year ahead is going to hold, so I thought I would take this time to do that now.. Whilst I don't make resolutions, as they are rarely kept - I do like to make a rough plan of the things I would like to achieve - I find it is best to keep these realistic, as much as I would love to win gold lotto, buy a new house and travel to a foreign country, some things just aren't going to happen in the next 12 months.. but I would like the following things to occur;

1. Finalise the house renovations, which include - painting the loungeroom/dining, bathroom, laundry, kitchen, entry and nursery! (Ugh I didnt realise there was so much left to do!)

2. Organise, Organise, Organise!! I would love to have better organisation systems in our home for a lot of things, so that is my plan, to sort that out in 2011.

3. Head back to work in a few short weeks, for as long as possible so I can start to SAVE, instead of SPEND! Cutting back on unneccesary spending this year, has to be a priority!!

4. Emphasis on Kids, family, relationships, health and overall happiness!

5. Make the most of every minute!

So only a few short points, but im sure they can encompass everything I wish to achieve this year.