Working on my BlogLook.

Tonight I have been playing around with the look of my blog page. I still consider myself new to the blogging world, with so much still to be explored! But I think I am going to have a lot of fun exploring this world.

There are certainly lots of lovely blogger friends I am meeting along the way.......lots of fascinating lives to read about.

So please bear with me whilst I change things about, make a few mistakes, & hopefully fix them! And Tina, I may be putting your phone number on speed dial! If I get stuck, I will be calling you to take you up on your offer of help - I hope there was no expiry date on it!

And if anyone finds I do anything ethically incorrect in the blogging world, please let me know (if I inadvertantly omit a link or button or something I am still learning about - please be patient!). I would hate to offend anyone unintentionally (if it's intentional, that's a different matter - lol). 

Suggestions for the look of my page are most welcome - I am not a creative person so if you know something would look better, please let me know - construction criticism is great.

Thanks ladies!

Karen xx

Good Old Fashioned Play Time

Hi!

Here I am, back again. I feel I have been so busy & tired lately that I have only just come up for air! Not that I have been doing anything mega fascinating, just the regular stuff that fills my life. Family & work. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, maybe......a large Lotto win would change the work situation!

Just thought I'd share a couple of pics of our simple but fun school holiday activities.

On the rainy days we built cubby houses in the lounge room using chairs, pillows & doonas. Zac's girlfriend Ceri was over for the day & it was lovely to see the two teens join in some fun that teens usually consider themselves too old for!

The kids went roller skating a couple of times (well, Liam went one time). Zac & Ceri went several times. Lucky ducks!

The pic of Zac on the grass is him rolling down the hill at Hindmarsh Park in Kiama this evening. He watched Liam & Megan do it for about 10 mins & then decided it looked like too much fun & I haven't heard him laugh from pure joy for so long.

The final pic of our 3 kids was also taken at the park this evening. It was one of those impromptu trips - my dear hubby stayed home & mopped the floor for me & got dinner cooked whilst we were out. After he had already vacuumed for me. I have a sore back so he gave me extra help today!

I love simple free play with the kids. A lot of kids these days need to be "taught" to play, they don't seem to know what to do if there is nobody or no computerised device entertaining them. We need a lot more simple play in our house.

What kind of things did you get up to with your kids these school holidays?

Kids can have such poor timing.....

I can play Facebook & read blogs for half an hour whilst Miss Megan is watching a DVD. I don't hear a peep from her.

Why is it that as soon as I start peeling the potatoes (picture dirty & wet hands), she does a big stinky poo, comes & asks me to make her a drink and demands a change of DVD to watch?! If I don't tend to her straight away, she tries to fix it all herself. I don't fancy having a naked pooey girl trying to pour herself a drink whilst attempting to shove a disc into the DVD player.......

You can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as I start mashing the spuds she will be asking for something else!

One of the joys of an almost 3 year old!

Do your kids do stuff like this too? Please tell me I am not alone!

No perfection here either....

After reading http://www.imaynotbeperfect.com/ (Erin's) and http://tinagray.me/ (Tina's) blogs on people portraying themselves as having a perfect life (when we all know that is not the reality), I thought I would jump on the bandwagon too and share some of the imperfections in my own life.

I have been accused in the past of being "Little Miss Perfect" (by my own sister who of all people should know better) because I look for the positive in everything and because I am one of these eternally cheerful people.

So, after a big breath, here we go:

1. I yell. Sometimes a lot. Our 2 year old says "Mum stop yelling to me". How bad does that make me feel?

2. I am too trusting - I trust everyone until they give me reason not to (regardless of reasons they may have given others not to trust them). I need to learn to be more wary and maybe a bit more reserved.

3. I don't often have an opinion on things, nor am I good at decision making. When I was growing up all my decisions were made for me by my strict mother & we weren't allowed to have opinions, we just had to do as we were told. So I was never taught the self confidence to be able to do this.

4. I am lazy when it comes to housework. That's why I get so excited when I read ideas on how to make running a household easier (call it decrapifying or decluttering or whatever). 

5. I have 20 kg to lose and have struggled with my weight all my life. Sound familiar? I have lost it 3 times already but I keep allowing it to come back. Maybe it's that whole self confidence thing again.

6. I rarely allow myself to have a day when I feel low, telling myself to snap out of it coz there is always someone out there worse off than I am.. Maybe I need to let myself feel sad sometimes because I know that one day it will all catch up with me otherwise & I will be a basket case. A couple of times in my life I have had what I call mini meltdowns and not always realised until afterwards. Maybe it's time to put myself first a bit more often.

7. I don't have the perfect husband,, nor does he have the perfect wife. But we love each other. We have been married since 1992 & almost split up in 1996 when our first child was 6 months old.

8. We overspend. Continually. Sure we have a big house but we also have a big mortgage.

9. I also struggle to keep up the washing & folding. I do not iron as such. I get the board out every day & iron the school uniforms. My mother, mother in law & babysitter all fold washing when they visit - they probably feel sorry for me!

10. I sometimes wish for time away from my family even though they are my life.

That's what I have come up with for now, but I'm sure I will think of more.....

Cheers,
Karen xx

Weekly Whiteboard

Here is a pic of my week that starts today.

It's my whiteboard that is on the fridge door. Every Sunday afternoon I grab the calendar off the wall & my diary & write up our whiteboard for the week. It's the only way I can keep track of who needs to be where. The calendar squares are too small & my eyes are getting too old to be able to read what is written on it from a distance. I used to live my life from my diary but since giving up the party plan business (the one that was taking over my life) I no longer carry my diary everywhere.

This way we all know what is happening, hubby Ray knows when I am going to work & where the kids need to be & when. He also has an idea of what happens in my life whilst he is at work. This is a pretty quiet week, which means lots of time for me to be at home and relax, oops, I mean do lots of housework!

I have even included a Dinner Winners section now, after being inspired by Tina Gray at http://tinagray.me/ with her Monday Meal Plan blogs.

Now everyone knows what is for dinner & it saves me having to spend time every day wondering what to cook. We should also see savings at the supermarket checkout! I will keep my fingers crossed anyway!!

What do you do in your home to keep track of everything?

Cheers,
Karen xx

Do Your Kids Look Like You?

I have always been told that our 3 kids look like my husband Ray. I am no good at picking who kids resemble in relation to their parents (unless it's bleedin' obvious like my friend Kim's kids http://mammadiosa.blogspot.com/). I do think our eldest looks a touch like my brother and I do agree that Liam looks like the photos of Ray I have seen from when he was the same age. And Megan is definitely a female version of Liam so she must be just like Ray too.....I didn't get much of a look in at all!

With that in mind, I thought I would share with you some pictures.....

In descending order we have  Megan, Dad, Liam, Mum & Zac. Artist : Megan (except the pic of her which was drawn by Zac).....

Compare these to our actual pics!

Zac & Megan in the first pic & Liam with his singlet on his head in the second pic.

Much resemblance?!

Ray wants to remain anonymous so I have not included a photo of him, but I kept threatening I would! "I don't wanna be a blog!"

Today I got Frightened.....

Today I got frightened. Frightened for a woman and frightened for her child. Frightened for what kind of life I imagine they must have. Everything happened in a few seconds & I will never know what was really going on.

I was driving to a shopping centre (I am not going to say which one because this could happen anywhere, not just in this particular suburb) and I saw a woman and child walking along the footpath. The child must have been about 4. As I was nearing them a car with a male driver pulled up, she stopped, startled, yelled someting & started running from him. He jumped out of the car & started chasing her, yelling. The child hadn't even had time to react before I had driven past.

What do you do in a situation like this?

I don't know what happened to the woman. I was so shaken. My instinct was that he was going to catch her & thump her. I kept checking in my rearview mirror but they were out of sight, having run off the footpath & towards houses (which is the only way you can run when a car pulls up & someone jumps out at you).

There were some workmen up ahead so I pulled up & called them over to ask them to drive down & make sure the woman was okay. I had visions of this man beating this woman up. And the child having to watch it happen. I didn't see much as I was driving at 60k's but I could see that she was frightened.

One of the workmen offered to call the police because he thought I was being chased, but then he figured out what I was saying (I was almost in tears & my voice was doing the shaking thing by now). He could see the car I was talking about (we were a bit further along the road now) & could see the guy getting back into it & taking off pretty quickly. So the workman took a good look at him & noted the rego as he passed us.

The whole thing was over in only 3 or 4 minutes so we figured there wouldn't have been time for the guy to have "done much" (terrible phrase but I am lost on how to describe it) to the woman. I hope the truth is that she got away in time & into a house & got the child inside too.

It makes me wonder how people get into, and stay in these kinds of relationships. I have never been in a volatile relationship so am not pretending I know anything about it. I realise some women don't have the confidence to leave, or they love him, or he promises it won't happen again, or whatever. And what does it do to the children? Do they grow up thinking that this behaviour is normal? I'm not judging, I'm not preaching, I'm just saying. This is my personal observation, that's all. It just makes me appreciate even more what a wonderful man I married and that the life I have is truly blessed.

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

Karen xx