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. 

Christmas 2010

I have thoroughly enjoyed the silly season this year and I threw myself into it head first.. decorated the house to excess, cooked up a storm, shopped til I dropped, stared at numerous Christmas lighting displays til I had stars in my eyes, wore my Christmas shirt at least ten times and overall had an absolute ball!  I can't believe its all over in the blink of an eye.. today I cleared out the leftovers from our very wet and soggy Christmas BBQ and for the first time ever I contemplated taking down my ornaments early, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.. I'll leave them up for just a few more days.

 

This year has been the first year in a little while that the cats haven't tried to destroy my Christmas tree, which has been nice, it looks the same as the night we put it up! So I guess I should relish that a little longer.

I loved having all the family over for a Christmas BBQ, it was so nice to have the majority of them all in one place, catching up.  If nothing else, that is my absolute favourite part of Christmas..

Other than that, I loved the following;

1. Sleeping in on Christmas day til 8am (although I wouldn't have minded being woken up at 5am either.. but it seems the little fella wanted to keep snoozing..) Quite thankful as we were up to 3am getting ready for it! And then seeing the look on the kids faces opening their presents.

2. Christmas lights; I love the effort that people put in, to put a smile on kids faces (and adults faces) at Christmas. There are so many beautiful light displays out there and even those with a string or two make Christmas all that more cheerful.

3. Reading Christmas books to the kids each night of December (or half of November..) I love the stories and they make the build up to Christmas a little more exciting each evening.

4. Advent Calendars.. Counting down to the big day with chocolate, what more could you want?? We had a chocolate style and a non-chocolate style too which was nice.

5. 12 Day of Christmas Activity - each day a new card hung on the tree for Indigo to open, what would we be doing today - visiting Santa, baking Christmas cookies, a Christmas movie?

6. Wrapping paper - I love wrapping paper, I bought 10 different designs this year because I simply couldn't choose one, so many pretty designs out there..

7. Tinsel - I'm not usually one to use tinsel, but this year I couldn't get enough of the glittery stuff, sparkly.

8. Chocolate - Both the children and I were given way too much, but it is way too nice to turn down. My favourite are chocolate seashells.

9. Making personalised baubles for my Parents, In laws and Grandparents. I was very happy with the way they turned out and I know they will be cherished for years to come. I was also touched to hear so many people are still using the ones I made years ago.



10. Seeing the loving care that goes into the plate of food and letter (or in my son's case, a gift pack he had handmade for Santa) that is left out on Christmas eve, its so sweet.



11. Shopping.. from the early presents I organised earlier in the year, to the layby's I made during the toy sales, to the Christmas shopping marathons I did earlier in the month whilst the kids were still at school, the late night shop where my son was in awe of stores being open at 11pm and the last minute grocery run on Christmas eve, I love the atmosphere of the shops at Christmastime.

So Christmas is done for another year, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas, whichever way you celebrated it, I look forward to next years Christmas.

One of the ways to share my kids work :-)

I am blessed to have a little artist in my home, my son loves more than anything to create and make drawings, paintings and various artwork that I love to keep and treasure.  However, with 4 kids in the house, the archives of school and art work soon mount up to levels that I have no idea where to keep!

One idea I had earlier in the year was to utilise this cute little display board that I got from Kmart, hung centrally in our home, above my craft/organisation station that I change the pictures on to suit an event that may be going on, or just because I love them.. I did a display for Mother's Day of the kids craft they bought home from school and now again, their Christmas craft.. Im just loving these snowmen! they have taken pride of place on the fridge for weeks before now moving onto the display board today..

Other areas I store the kids artwork is on their own pinboards in their rooms, on the front of our fridge (the kids love putting their piccies on their to give to me) and each of them have a folder or sketch book which I collect and collate their various artworks into.  I am of course behind in doing this, so will need to get working on this during these school holidays!

Project Life Tuesday.. A restart after slackness!

Monday 29th November - Sunday 5th December..

Monday 29th..
Iv saved this spot..

Tuesday 30th..

Last day of work before the holidays! YAY! Great time to send other teachers out their presents.. kids loved giving these to their teachers today! Hope next years teachers are just as good..

Wednesday 1st..
Bought and decorated our new christmas tree!

Thursday 2nd..
Santa Photo!

Friday 3rd..
Christmas Crackers.. Had so much fun making these from scratch..

Saturday 4th..
Christmas Baking.. We made yummy cinamon crumble muffins in santa cases!

Sunday 5th..
Hubby Cooking Dinner after a day of christmas shopping.. needed a break!

Crackers over Christmas!

This is a simple craft activity that my Mum did with us as kids and it is something I enjoy making each year at Christmastime too.  I don't think it is much more cost effective than buying Christmas crackers, because they are relatively inexpensive these days, however, you end up getting better quality items on the inside of your cracker than just a simple hat and joke!  It is a great craft activity for the kids to get involved with too and Indigo and I had a lot of fun on Friday afternoon making our first batch for the year!

What you will need:

* Cardboard tubes (toilet rolls, paper towel rolls etc) as many as you require.

* Different coloured Christmas wrapping paper

* Sticky Tape

* Curling ribbon

* Fillings for the crackers; i.e chocolates, mini toys, jokes, balloons etc.

Start by filling the cardboard tubes with your assorted fillings. For this batch my son chose, Cadbury Time Out chocolates, Freddo Frogs and some wrapped lollies, put a cross of sticky tape over each end of the tube to stop the fillings falling out.  Place the cardboard tube onto a sheet of wrapping paper and roll it up, leaving an overhang at the end of the tube.  Use your curling ribbon to tie off each end.. I find it best not to twist the ends, rather use the ribbon to tie them in, curl the ribbons to make them look pretty.  And there you have a very simple Christmas cracker. 

When the kids pull them on the day, make them say 'Bang!' lol, it adds to the fun and something we thought was good fun as kids.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have spent the past couple of days decorating our home for the festive season, which has been a lot of fun. I have decorated a little more than in previous years, but both the kids and I are loving it! Christmas comes but once a year after all.. so why not!

Each year on Dec 1'st we start by putting up our Christmas tree, I decided to buy a new tree this year as I happened to be in Target on Wednesday and they had 40% off all tree's and ornaments.  I did love our old tree, but I have always wanted a fir style tree (the ones with the bottle brush branches) so I decided to buy one at the right price! We have a tradition when putting up our tree that we have a full roast dinner, play Christmas carols and afterwards the kids watch a Christmas movie. 

Iv also decorated doorways, the mantel, the bookshelf and many other areas of our home this year, love wherever we go, we are reminded that it is Christmas!  I particularly love this metal sign that I purchased from Bed Bath N Table this year to put up in our entry.

I got the idea to put the greenery and baubles at the Christmas Shop in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

Loving this cute little bird from Bunnings for only $4

Added a little bit of Christmas to our table centrepiece.  

I don't believe my decorating is finished as yet and hubby is going to start on putting up our Christmas lights outside this afternoon.  Tomorrow I am going to post about our homemade Christmas crackers..