30 Positive Things! (Link Singular Insanity)

Today I'm linking up with Dorothy from Singular Insanity in listing 30 Positive Things about myself.. THIRTY! Talk about blowing one's own whistle! however, I found this a worthwhile activity because as a busy Mother we don't often take the time out to think about the good qualities that we can offer or even think about our positives, but we certainly are quick to judge ourselves critically and feel bad about our flaws. So here goes... (dons thinking cap..)
1. I am a wonderful Mother, I love my children and would do anything for them
2. I am a great wife.. (as I hear hubby in the background stacking the dishwasher) I'm faithful, honest and love my husband deeply.
3. I am a good Daughter/Grandaughter. I don't visit as often as I should, but I'm always happy to keep the lines of communication open & have never taken advantage of my wonderful parents/Grandparents.
4. I like to keep a clean and tidy home. I am a house proud person.
5. I make awesome cupcakes.. I love it, baking ~ it's so therapeutic! And so yummy.
6. I cut down from 1.5l of Coke a day to 350-700ml. I don't drink coffee, so that's my excuse for not going cold turkey!
7. I don't drink alcohol or smoke..
8. I started exercising 2 weeks ago and have stuck with it thus far! 4 walks a week.. Feel so much better for it.
9. I have never been fired from a job..
10. I finished my Uni degree after struggling with it for 10 years as i had an unwavering passion to be a Teacher.
11. I donate to 3 charities yearly. This year it's been Canteen, Royal Children's Hospital & Endevour Foundation.
12. I look forward to Christmas, I love the time spent with family, tradition & seeing the joy on kids faces.. How is this a positive, because at Christmastime I just feel 'different' & for me that time of the year is a positive.
13. I have big blue eyes :-) I love my eyes.. They are something both of my boys have and I love it when they say they got their eyes from their Mum.
14. I think it's wonderful that I have lovely friends, although I sometimes wish I had a really close friend. But it's all good, a few are better than none I guess! :-)
15. I love my job (when I go) I'm a relief teacher. The hours are right, the pay is great & the kids are wonderful. Lots of variety, never boring & I usually work alone.
16. I live in a wonderful area and have done so for 31 years. Since a young child I have lived in my family home, now it's mine, I too still feel a great connection with the home & the area & am glad my kids got to experience some of my nostalgic childhood memories.
17. I'm not addicted to TV! Positive because my life doesn't revolve around the box. :-) So many people I know get so engrossed in program's, I'm just happy to watch what's on, when it's on..
18. I enjoy walking, it's so therapeutic to be out in the fresh air amongst nature & to be getting fit at the same time is just a side benefit to how good just being outside makes me feel.
19. I can grow flowers ok now. My Mum is such a green thumb, she can make any flower/tree/grass grow and her flowers are just insanely beautiful. I've never had the patience for flowers in the past, but my recent attempts at beautifying my front garden have worked out well.. So I'm pretty happy at that even if they are only petunia's & pansy's!
20. (omg its getting so hard to think of things...) I'm a great bargain shopper, I can usually find great sales & fantastic items on specials or in op shops etc. 21. Im a fast ironer (in this house you have to be!)
22. I love the beach it's my happy place :-)
23. I love my hair, it grows really quickly.
24. I'm good at playing Super Mario on the Wii and Mario Kart.
25. I'm a good judge of character.
26. I enjoy watching movies.
27. I have wonderful children
28. I have a wonderful husband
29. I have a wonderful family
30. I AM WONDERFUL (& FINISHED! Not a point too soon! Phew...)

That was hard work.. Sorry if I repeated myself :-) give it a go & link up with Singular Insanity.

Sales! Love them!

Last week it just so happened I was in the right place at the right time (for once!) and I happened to stumble upon a Target below cost clearance sale. I love Target clothes for the kids (except last season, I just couldn't get into the burnt orange) I find them to be stylish, long lasting/durable and on the most part affordable so I usually get the majority of each season's clothes there with a spattering of Kmart and Big W here & there. Anyway, so I happened to stumble into this sale & I loaded the pram to the top & my 7 year old's arms with some fantastic priced goodies such as World Industries skinny leg jeans (RRP $36) for $12, Piping Hot Skinny legs for $8, whole outfits in size 1 & 2 from $2.86! & Pj's from only $2.86! I was stoked. I purchased 1 full price tee amongst my bargains which set me back $10 but all the other items cost me $90.00 all up!

I got home and totalled up the real value (I get a kick out of seeing how much I have saved) and if I'd paid full price it totalled $320! A whopping saving of $230!

What was even better the next day I popped back & a target worker was taking all the purple priced items off the shelves as the sale didn't start til the week after! Score... I went up there tonight and I noticed the items I had bought were still marked down but their prices had increased by $2.00 across the board, so I got a great bargain. Tonight I picked up a $50 outfit (Piping Hot Jeans & Long Sleeve Tee) size 1 for $7.00. With prices like that, I couldn't even be bothered 2nd hand shopping.. :-) thanks Target! :-D

Belated Birthday Post

Charlie turned 1 on the 26th July, I can't believe how quickly the past year has gone. 1 year ago I was introduced to the most teensy tiny perfect little person and over the past year he has grown into a gorgeous, energetic and VERY inquisitive toddler whom brightens my day with his gorgeous smile, cuddles and kisses.

At one he is able to say quite a few words added to his vocab lately is hello (ello) quack quack (cuck cuck) & Badger (adger) our dog.

Over the past week he has learnt to stand more solidly & walk along on the furniture and his walker, although shaky he is super eager to get a wriggle on! We're not fussed either way & are happy for him to crawl as long as he likes.

Food wise, he is a great eater. Eating a varied diet & willing to eat nearly all that is placed in front of him, provided it is mashed as he isn't 100% confident on lumps. This past fortnight his favourite has been biscuits & a treat of flavoured milk!

His birthday was celebrated at home with lots of balloons, pressies & cake. We had a party on the weekend following his birthday but due to illness it was only a small do. It was a great start to his 2nd year of life though and I look forward to every minute of it!

Love you little Charlie Oliver xo

Hello again!

I'm baaaack! Not that I've been far away, I actually haven't gone anywhere at all! So many viruses & illnesses has kept this family relatively quiet over the colder months thus far, but as the weather warms up.. So do I. Hubby and I are not winter people at all, we both seem to go into our cocoons over the Winter. So over the next few days, I hope to do a catch up on my blog..

We're up tonight with our little man, he hasn't been sleeping that well of late (or ever really) but lately it's been worse, 4 teeth coming in, illness & he's just started standing & trying to walk, so he's never really prepared to sit still for very long, which is oh so cute, but oh so tiring all at the same time! :-)

It's our 'off term' as opposed to our 'on term' when Hubby's kids are here (also known as the 'off term' lol) so the two boys have been bonding really well & playing up a storm in the absence of the 2 baby helicopters, my eldest 2 stepchildren, who tend to hog the baby!
The kidlets have been coming back every 2nd weekend. So we've been trying to pop in the odd family activity here & there but haven't ventured too far in light of everyone feeling unwell or what it seems the remainder of the population trying to influenza any healthy people that do venture out!

We've had a good couple of months & I look forward to getting back into my blog & sharing with you the crazy world that is this family.

Making our Dollar Stretch Further..

The past two weekends I have ventured to the fruit markets to purchase the weekly fruit and veggie's and I must say I have been amazed at how much you can get for little $$. It happened by chance that I went last Saturday, but after realizing how much I was able to save and was also impressed by the quality I decided to go back again today. It's a loud and crazy environment, people everywhere and loads of shouting '$1, $1, $1 a bag..' but the kid's got a great kick out of it & seemed to enjoy themselves (which doesn't usually happen at the regular grocery store) so it's been a win win really.  The first time I went I got there at approx 10am, there was still a lot left, great selection/quality etc and today I didn't get there til 11am and once again there was still plenty left and what was even better, they reduce things further the closer to midday it is, so there were even better bargains to be found!  I even heard of 6kg of washed potato's going at one stage for just $2! (I was quite miffed as I paid $8.00 for 3 kg the other day from Coles!) but alas, I'd already bought my spuds early for 2kg for 99c a bag (maybe next week!).

I also bought a pineapple $1.20ea, Tomato's $2kg, Spinach leaves $10.00 kg, Carrots 99c bag, Mushrooms (fill a bag for $2!) Massive Strawberries for $4.00, Watermelon for $1kg, Squash for $2.00 a bag, Red Capsicum for $2 a bag, banana's for 99c kg, Apple's 99c kg the list goes on.. which added up to a very big saving on our weekly shop as I usually buy all of these items at supermarket prices. 

After finishing up at the fruit markets (and blowing my saving's on some German sausages for the kids..) we went to discount Grocery Store which offer's discounted grocery line's that may be out of their best before or close to their use by date etc and nabbed even more savings.. once again the kids were suitably impressed because there was a room filled with American chocolates/lollie's so they though that was just wonderful, even though they only left with one each... Last week I was able to buy Chicken Kebab's for only $1.99 for a tray of 6! This week a packet of gourmet Chili Con Carne for only $3.00! and 4 Serve Ravioli's for only $3.00 also among many other bargains!  I had planned on photographing my stash of bargains, however, Hubby was far too efficient in packing it all away.. so I'll have to do that next week for you all.. 

In a household that spends far too much of our $$ on food, I am very happy to have found these great places which have saved me many many $$ in the past fortnight, better spent on anything other than Woolworths or Coles! 

Day at Dreamworld..

Today we awoke to SUNSHINE! So we decided it was a great day to head to Dreamworld on the Gold Coast.  I thought our annual passes were to expire tomorrow, being the last day of June, however, upon presenting them to the ticket office this morning I noticed we have a 'bonus month' so they don't end until the end of July! (even better)...  

We have only made it there 3 times before this visit, so I was very impressed today with all of the changes that have been made to the younger kids area in the park.  The last few times I have been I felt the area that was formerly home to the Nickolodean characters was dismal and depressing, bordering on dirty.. but today there was no sign of that, with the new Dreamworks branding the area was beautifully finished, colourful, vibrant and overall IMPRESSIVE!  The kids absolutely loved the ride's and didn't even harrass us to go on the scary rides (that I loathe..)  I was a little perturbed by the fact the children's rollercoaster was missing it's last 2 seats and the 2nd last row had two crash test dummy's sitting in them (needless to say the kids didn't go on that ride today!).   Even our little one got to go on the Merry-Go-Round, which he looked rather concerned about, but thought it hilarious when his Brother's and Sister went on the Flying Dronkey's (very cute). 

We checked out all of the animals, had lunch in the all-you-can eat restaraunt and Hubby and the kid's even got a go at the Alien Vs. Predator Vs. You laser tag, which we hadn't played before.. they had a ball.  When it was time to go home, we got the usual 'Can we please go to the gift shop' whine's from all of the kid's (well at least 3 out of 5) and luckily we had a quick (lengthy) stopover in the gift shop because when we came out, the lights & laser show was about to start (we didn't even know it was on?)  So all in all, it was a great full day out..

glad the rain P.O.Q'd and let us have this lovely day out.. it was just the break away from the house that we needed..

Rain Rain Go Away!

Well we are six days into the school holidays (Yippee) and we haven't seen much sunshine.. The kids have been unable to go out into the rain to play (for fear of melting) and we hadn't ventured far as my eldest Son was visiting with his Dad for the first part of the school holidays (also on a rained out holiday!) so we were waiting for him to rejoin the tribe before visiting the school holiday regulars (museum, art gallery etc). 

It has given us time however, as my hubby is also on 2 weeks holidays to get the odd jobs that have been niggling at us around the house.. I am well and truly on a decluttering mission and for the first time ever, WINNING!

Talk about winning.. I won a double pass to see 'What to Expect when you are Expecting' through the Safe n Sound Facebook page.. I was so stoked and had all of these lovely visions of me, myself and I sitting in the cinema relaxing and kicking back to my own company and enjoying the movie i'd been hoping to see, but each afternoon when I check the mail box i'm deeply depressed because they're not here yet!  They told me they would be posting them on Thursday! I hope they show up soon, I would love a little 'Mummy Break' right about now.. 

It's been odd having all of the kidlet's home for not 1 but 2 whole weeks these holidays.. We made an agreement with their bio-Mum last year that we would take a 2 week block each and split the other holidays 50/50.. it's worked out well so far, but means the next term (when we don't have them) we won't get to see them as much.. but it is much better for organising trips away etc (maybe next year when we have the warmer 2 week break!)  

Oh well id best get a little snooze in before my bed is invaded by not only 1 but 2 children each night now! More on that bad habit another post...