I’ve just had a person round from a solar panel place to talk to me about getting solar panels on my house so I can contribute electricity back to the grid. Luckily I got in early enough before the government stopped the $8000 rebate. I’ll end up paying some money over this rebate but it will be totally worth it to get paid for electricity rather than having to fork out money for the privilege.

The cute salesman was very impressed that my electricity usage is quite low - about 4.5kWh consumption on average. He said that some people he sees consume about 22kWh which must mean they have everything electrical on in their house all the time. I’m so conscious that I even turn the microwave off at the powerpoint when I’m not using it. Same for the stereo, and the TV goes off at the TV rather than being left on standby. I don’t use the air conditioner until I absolutely have to and I have a habit of turning off lights in rooms that aren’t being used which is quite dangerous when you have a black dog that lies in high traffic places.

Enough about me, my holiday, and my electricity frugality. I have a giveaway of ‘green’ cleaning products and some yummy chocolate. You’ve got a week and a bit to enter this one by leaving a comment.

As I’m away for just over a week my blogging might be a bit light on during this time as I tune out of the internet and go analogue.

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I gave him his presents and he read the card first.

He then opened the main present.

He then realised what it was. He’s been hassling me for a Nintendo DS for ages and I finally caved in. I even bought the DSi.

He opened the second part of the present which included a game.

And before too long he was occupied playing it. I realise that now that he’s got a DSi he’ll be hassling me to play it all the time. It’s not one of those things that he can have whenever he wants and so far I think he accepts that. He asked me today if we can take it away with us, and of course we will be.

Just a small technical note about the DSi. It accepts an SD card so you can store music and photos on it. I would have expected that you could put the SD card into the slot and it would be recognised straight away like in a camera but this isn’t the case. You have to connect to the internet before the DSi will recognise it. I’m fairly technically savvy but I had a bitch of a time trying to connect it to the internet using my wi-fi broadband at home.

I’ve got my security setup with WPA and the default for the DSi is WEP - ie two different kinds of security. The documentation I found said that you could setup the internet with WAP security but damned if I could find it. The manual didn’t mention anything that I could find and then I finally (after nearly two hours) found that if you used connections 4-6 on the DSi you could select more than just WEP security. Finally I connected to the internet which I hadn’t really wanted to do anyway. I just wanted the thing to read the SD card.

My lost two hours could have been much better spent organising the birthday party for the Sunday. JJ hasn’t had a birthday party since his fifth birthday and that was a huge one number wise but this one felt more stressful - probably because it was at home and probably because I wasn’t quite sure how I would entertain these children for two hours.

Nearly half an hour after they arrived I was still the only adult there and I was starting to freak out. My friends were supposed to be there for two o’clock and they were seriously late. One of the fathers offered to stay but he had to go on a quick errand before he came back. By the time he did come back my other friends had arrived but he still stayed.

We started off with Pass the Parcel which was surprisingly hard work. The kids (five boys) were really over-excited and very hard to control. It was JJ times five. Note Monty in prime patting position!

We then did musical statues outside which was great to get rid of some of that energy.

I found a game called Mummy Wrap on the internet and I really didn’t hold out much hope for this game because it required standing still. The boys paired up and had to wrap each other like a mummy.

To their credit they all did a really good job with a bit of help from some adults.

Here’s one nearly completed.

Here’s me directing some toilet paper pickup after the first round. The toilet paper I got came apart quite easily so it was a little bit hard not to rip it.

They then swapped and we judged the best wrapper, although they nearly all won a prize.

To get the toilet paper off they had to do star jumps.

And then wrestle each other to the ground.

After some food, some more jumping on the trampoline it was time for the birthday cake. JJ wanted me to make my cheesecake (the Superb Cheesecake from the Quick and Thrifty Readers Digest recipe book). I bought some Smarties so the boys could decorate their piece.

And then they all left and I sat down and breathed a big sigh of relief. It was all worth it though because JJ had a great time and I’m pretty sure his guests had a great time too.

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He’s been a bit better since then and so have I.

Moving on then. It’s his birthday on Friday and he’s having a party on Sunday which I’ve been stressing over. Really it won’t be that stressful and I’m sure it will be fine on the day. We’ve got a list or three of what games to play, what I need to buy, and what we need to do. I tell you, being a mum makes me even more super organised than I used to be. I often think that if I go for a job interview and they ask for examples of my organisation skills, not only can I use work ones, but I can use motherhood ones also.

So, back to the party, we’ve got about five children coming over for two hours and we’ve organised some games for them to play and I’m hoping that we have enough to occupy these little rascals for that time. So any ideas for fillers are very welcome, especially ideas for things to do inside.

Bless my son’s heart, he’s so excited about his party and he’s gonna wet himself when he gets his Nintendo DSi on Friday. I’m gonna have some great leverage when that comes into play.

In addition to the normal parenting, work and home duties I have a three more things that are going to be on my plate, and already are to some extent. They are extra work outside of my paid work.

Firstly I agreed, in a weak moment, to do a website for a friend’s business. I’m going to do a Wordpress site for her rather than build from scratch. We met about it in March and it should have been done and dusted by now but it’s not. I’ve told her that I’ve got some other things coming up and I really want to get hers out the way. I’m going to have to lay down the law and say I won’t do it if she doesn’t hurry up. I’m being paid with treatments from her (she does shiatsu).

The other thing is that I do some freelance work through work and they’re doing a big website revamp which will involve a lot of work on my part. I’m being paid handsomely for it but there will be a fair bit of time involved.

And lastly, a business opportunity has come my way. I’ve been approached by a friend to join him and two others for a web-based startup. I can’t say too much about it at the moment but they’ve really done their research and it sounds quite promising. Naturally there’s work involved there too so I’m quietly panicking.

A while back I’d started playing with the idea of starting my own business but was really hesitant because I would have to do it all on my own and I know my own limitations. Working with others can have its pitfalls but also its strengths. I’ll definitely keep you posted on that one.

Anyway, time to go, lots to do.

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Yesterday I was the devil mother. Everything my son did was wrong and whenever he did anything wrong in my eyes I told him off. Therefore yesterday I constantly told him off and I even raised my voice more than once.

Yesterday evening saw me wound up so tight that I paced up and down the path near the side of my house because I couldn’t leave him alone in the house while I went for a walk.

My behaviour as a parent was woeful and I know it.

Fortunately not long after I finished pacing outside the house, I dropped him off at the babysitters and went to a party. If not, it would have been an early night for him. I had a fabulous time at the party catching up with some friends I don’t see that often, drinking slightly too much and dancing just the right amount. As I said to JJ today I even told some friends I know I behaved abominably as a parent. He was surprised that I told them it was me who misbehaved and not him. Don’t worry, he was no angel yesterday but it’s no excuse.

Even though I didn’t get that much sleep last night today is a new day and it’s a lot better as I knew it would be. It seems that nearly every time I take my eye off the ball as a parent, I drop it. My eye’s back on the ball and I’ve remembered some of the things the psychologist said when we were seeing her last year.

I’ve come to the conclusion that kids are smarter than us poor, unsuspecting adults, and if we let them they’ll run rings around us and sometimes do.

What do you do when your kid/s is driving you round the bend and you can’t leave them to get a bit of perspective? Do you turn into the mother from hell, or do you have a foolproof, failsafe method of not letting that happen? Just so you know, I don’t always turn into the mother from hell. I usually handle it. What I’ve described above is reasonably rare.

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We go to the local farmer’s market just about every Sunday morning to get our fresh produce and usually only spend as little time as possible there. However, there is a kids club that has different activities.

A couple of weeks ago JJ participated in the kids club doing the edible garden. The edible garden involved watering plants as you can see above, picking plants that were ready and then planing some new seedlings.

JJ was happy with everything he was doing and looked interested so I was able to dash off and quickly do some of my shopping.

Kid’s club usually involves eating food and this time they ate some very cute little round carrots they’d picked and drank some apple and carrot juice that a nearby market stall donated.

We also got a bag of silverbeet and rainbow chard which I used in a stirfry. And all this for free. We don’t usually have the time to stay around for an extra hour but when we do, the kid’s club is a great activity and we’re very lucky to be able to participate.

I would love to do more gardening but I don’t really have the room and I don’t really have the time. We grow herbs and that’s about it. My tomato crop from this summer was decimated by the extended heatwave we had so it was a waste of the water I used to try and keep them alive. We do have a local community garden and I’d like to get a plot there one day when I’ve got more time. One day.

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At any other time he absolutely loves the dog to pieces and he can’t get enough of her but when it comes to having to get up on a cold and dark morning he whinges about it.

While my nephew was living here finishing off his last two years of high school I could walk the dog by myself a lot of mornings and it was great but now that he’s gone I have to take JJ with me. It’s so tempting to leave him at home tucked up in bed but I know he’s too young at the moment. When would he not be too young? Any ideas?

I told JJ this morning, as he put his helmet on because he takes his scooter, that soon the shortest day of the year would be here and the morning will start to get lighter. It cheered me up saying that. Once we both get out there we’re fine and the whinging generally stops.

By the way the aforementioned nephew has just about finished his basic training in the Navy, or boot camp or whatever they call it. He’s having his passing out parade this Thursday and my niece and nephew are going but because it’s in Victoria apparently they have to have a week off afterwards just incase of this jolly Swine Flu thing.

I wonder when all the people in the neighbourhood walk their dogs? When the weather’s warmer there’s lots of them at the local oval in the morning so many of them must do it in the evening during winter. I wonder. If you have a dog, when do you walk it? Do you have a regular time, or is it more ad-hoc?

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They have - sort of.

In the last few weeks JJ has had two time-out slips from school. A kid gets a time-out or a detention slip for all sorts of reasons including violence towards other kids.

The first one a few weeks ago said that he’d kicked someone in the shins and then when this kid fell on the ground he stomped on their back. I was pretty horrified but I kept my cool. When I questioned him about it the full story came out. A bit of background. JJ is pretty tall for his age and he towers over most kids in his class except for the one he kicked.

But, the full story. This kid had wanted JJ to join his ‘club’ but JJ didn’t want to. This kid swung JJ by the arm into a tree and kicked in the balls (JJ’s words). That’s when JJ kicked him back but he never stomped on his back.

I wrote this down on the time-out slip and sent it to school with JJ. JJ was really pleased that I believed him and that I was doing something about it which made me feel a bit mean because in the past I haven’t always believed him. That’s what happens when you occasionally do lie to your mum!

The upshot was that this kid also got a detention.

So, on to a more recent incident. The time-out slip said that JJ kicked another kid in the shins (kicking in the shins is popular) and it wasn’t the first time with this kid. We sat down for half an hour and quite a different story emerged. I won’t bore you with all the details but JJ promised that he didn’t kick this kid in the shins but this kid had hassled him and when JJ went away and told two teachers - they both said to ignore him. By the way, this kid does Scouts with JJ and I witnessed him kicking JJ for which I told him off.

I spoke to the teacher yesterday and explained to her what JJ had told me. All the versions differed which is what happens in any account of anything. I also explained that JJ feels lonely at lunch time and consequently has nothing to do. Unfortunately he attracts kids and vice-versa that are trouble when they mix.

His teacher was really good and has made some suggestions for lunchtime activities for him. She’s also going to get the pastoral care worker to come in and do some work with him and others. I also mentioned that JJ had gone up to two different teachers and being told to ignore the person that’s hassling him obviously doesn’t work. I suggested that the yard duty teacher direct him to do something as a distraction. I don’t know if this will happen and if it it happens whether it will work or not.

It’s small small steps with this school yard politics but he’s getting there slowly.

In the meantime his birthday party invitations have been distributed. I’m a bit worried that only a couple of the six boys JJ’s invited will be able/want to come. Apparently one (the ball kicker above) said that he probably wouldn’t come because his dad thought JJ was mean. I’m sure his dad didn’t say that so it will be interesting to see if he does come or not. And I thought I knew some bitches.

We’ve planned the games, and the birthday cake so hopefully the weather’s kind.

If it’s all too much at least we’ll be going to Queensland a week later to recover. If any of you live around the Gold Coast, northern NSW we’ll be there early July for a week or so. We could do a bloggy catchup perhaps?

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photo credit: talekinker

This morning at work I hunted for a teaspoon to help make my coffee and realised that the teaspoon supply was seriously depleted. I had to pull a dirty one out of the dishwasher, wash it, and use it. We used to have lots of teaspoons. Where have all these teaspoons gone?

Believe it or not, four years ago a research study (in Melbourne Australia) was done to find out what happens to the missing teaspoons in a workplace.

During their five month study 80% of the 70 teaspoons placed in a workplace went missing. It didn’t matter if they were better quality ones or not, they just went missing.

After telling the workplace staff about this study, five teaspoons were recovered. The others were not. Nobody knows where they are.

I can only guess they are with the missing socks and odd thongs (flip-flops).

Does the same thing happen in your workplace?

Read about the full teaspoon study here.

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Because we’ve had so much rain this autumn and even in the first week of winter, the hills are just gorgeous at the moment. On the weekend we visited some friends in the hills who have a bit of land attached to their property.

The trees in the background are theirs.

So is the chook shed. I’m surprised JJ didn’t go in there for a long time doing some chicken talking.

But he probably didn’t because they weren’t actually in their home, but nestled up in a nearby shed.

While we were there we noticed one of their sheep had a limp so we herded them into a small yard so the sore leg could be examined more closely.

I grew up on a farm that had sheep so I’m quite used to the ways of sheep, including them not wanting to go anywhere near a human  if they can help it.

On any country property that has a bit of room there’s inevitably something rusty. This is from a car that’s been cannibalised for spare parts.

I’d planned to head home for dinner but we ended up staying (not that late) so our drive home was in the wet, dark and cold but when I got home I lit the fire which I’d prepared earlier and had a quiet night at home in front of the fire - another thing I would never say in an online profile of any sort.

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Once upon a time there was a girl with two younger sisters. Their parents had been on a two-three week holiday without them but brought them t-shirts back. They made them wear these t-shirts to take a photo and not only that they gave them identical haircuts and made them tuck those t-shirts into their pants.

The girl was kind of sick of looking like her sisters so she thought she’d dress up Spanish for the day. Luckily it coincided with an international theme at school.

The girls parents liked buying more matching items of clothing for the two older girls while the younger girl generally had the hand-me-downs. The girls were also made to collect the eggs and help feed the pigs.

The girl played in her school’s fife band and they used to go to Nuriootpa for band competitions every year. (She’s the 2nd one from the left in the top row). The band weren’t really that musical but they looked pretty damn good in their red and white uniforms with the girls wearing bobby socks.

The girls’ aunt got married so she invited the girls to be her flower girls. The girls’ mum made all their dresses while the bride’s mum made hers. The mum kept all the bridesmaid dresses until quite recently but the girl said that she didn’t want to keep it. She didn’t think her son would want to wear it.

Once upon a time the girl swam in a swimming pool that didn’t have a great big fence around it. Her Nana always supervised her and her sisters to make sure they were safe. Nana isn’t around any more but her memory definitely lingers on and the girl’s sister lives in the same apartment. The pool is still there too but now it has a great big fence around it and a list of rules as long as your arm.

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